Patients with CVID had a greater likelihood of developing lung disease, possibly due to delayed diagnosis and immune dysregulation, as compared with XLA patients. Early diagnosis of patients with primary antibody deficiencies and adequate i.v. immunoglobulin replacement therapy substantially reduces the number of pulmonary infections. However, CVID patients are prone to progression of lung disease despite optimal immunoglobulin therapy because of the nature of the disease. This important issue should be addressed in further studies.
Nuclear medicine is experiencing a renaissance, with U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval recently being obtained for theranostic agents and a wide variety of such agents soon to impact patient care significantly in the era of precision medicine. The NETTER-1 trial demonstrated the therapeutic effect of a theranostic agent in markedly improving progression-free survival in patients with metastatic gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Predominantly retrospective studies have demonstrated a significant response to 177 Lu-labeled agents targeting prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in patients with prostate cancer. At least 2 prospective clinical trials involving 177 Lu-PSMA agents are under way that will likely pave the way for Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States. A significant upside to theranostics is that patients tend to tolerate these agents better than chemotherapy. Theranostic compounds are likely to impact many cancers in the near future, not only through improvements in quality of life but also in terms of survival. This article provides an overview of already approved agents as well as those on the horizon. It is important that as these agents are clinically onboarded, nuclear medicine physicians have the expertise to deploy theranostics safely and efficiently, ensuring that these agents attain and maintain their position as leading lines of therapy in managing patients with cancer as well as becoming an important aspect of nuclear medicine practice in the future.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a growing field of research that is emerging as a promising adjunct to assist physicians in detection and management of patients with cancer. 18 F-FDG PET imaging helps physicians in detection and management of patients with cancer. In this study we discuss the possible applications of AI in 18 F-FDG PET imaging based on the published studies. A systematic literature review was performed in PubMed on early August 2020 to find the relevant studies. A total of 65 studies were available for review against the inclusion criteria which included studies that developed an AI model based on 18F-FDG PET data in cancer to diagnose, differentiate, delineate, stage, assess response to therapy, determine prognosis, or improve image quality. Thirty-two studies met the inclusion criteria and are discussed in this review. The majority of studies are related to lung cancer. Other studied cancers included breast cancer, cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, lymphoma, pancreatic cancer, and sarcoma.All studies were based on human patients except for one which was performed on rats. According to the included studies, machine learning (ML) models can help in detection, differentiation from benign lesions, segmentation, staging, response assessment, and prognosis determination. Despite the potential benefits of AI in cancer imaging and management, the routine implementation of AI-based models and 18 F-FDG PETderived radiomics in clinical practice is limited at least partially due to lack of standardized, reproducible, generalizable, and precise techniques.
Background
An updated systematic review and meta‐analysis of relevant studies to evaluate the effectiveness of prostate‐specific membrane antigen (PSMA)‐targeted endoradiotherapy/radioligand therapy (PRLT) in castration resistant prostate cancer (CRPC).
Methods
A systematic search was performed in July 2020 using PubMed/Medline database to update our prior systematic review. The search was limited to papers published from 2019 to June 2020. A total of 472 papers were reviewed. The studied parameters included pooled proportion of patients showing any or ≥50% prostate‐specific antigen (PSA) decline after PRLT. Survival effects of PRLT were assessed based on pooled hazard ratios (HRs) of the overall survival (OS) according to any PSA as well as ≥50% PSA decline after PRLT. Response to therapy based on ≥50% PSA decrease after PRLT versus controls was evaluated using Mantel‐Haenszel random effect meta‐analysis. All p values < 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
Results
A total of 45 publications were added to the prior 24 studies. 69 papers with total of 4157 patients were included for meta‐analysis. Meta‐analysis of the two recent randomized controlled trials showed that patients treated with 177Lu‐PSMA 617 had a significantly higher response to therapy compared to controls based on ≥50% PSA decrease. Meta‐analysis of the HRs of OS according to any PSA decline and ≥50% PSA decline showed survival prolongation after PRLT.
Conclusions
PRLT results in higher proportion of patients responding to therapy based on ≥50% PSA decline compared to controls. Any PSA decline and ≥50% PSA decline showed survival prolongation after PRLT.
Advances in knowledge: This is the first meta‐analysis to aggregate the recent randomized controlled trials of PRLT which shows CRPC patients had a higher response to therapy after PRLT compared to controls.
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