Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule Is an Accurate Target for Fluorescence Guided Imaging of Lymph Nodes.

IF 2.5 4区医学 Q2 RADIOLOGY, NUCLEAR MEDICINE & MEDICAL IMAGING

Molecular Imaging and Biology Pub Date : 2025-12-01 Epub Date: 2025-10-14 DOI:10.1007/s11307-025-02058-5

Kelly Anne McGovern, Katherine O Welch, Ryan Krouse, Michael Brown, Lydia Chen, Kevin Guo, Jeffrey Huang, Jake Mlakar, Edward J Delikatny, Viktor Gruev, Paul Zhang, Sunil Singhal

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Purpose: Lymph node (LN) excision is critical in oncologic surgery to provide important therapeutic and diagnostic information. LN evaluation helps in staging cancers, predicting prognosis and improving survival. The ultimate wish of a surgical oncologist would be to localize and dissect all pathologically positive LNs while avoiding the morbidity of removing true negative LNs. The goal of our study was to identify a reliable marker for intraoperative molecular imaging of LNs with cancer cells from non-small cell lung cancer versus a LN without.

Procedures: We identified Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule (EpCAM), a membrane protein normally expressed in epithelial tissues including lung. We performed immunofluorescence staining on human specimens with a conjugated anti-EpCAM monoclonal antibody.

Results: Fluorescence was significantly higher in LNs with metastases as shown in 48 positive LNs from patients with resected primary lung cancer. There was high fluorescence in both hilar and mediastinal LNs, and in all primary tumor histologies.

Conclusions: EpCAM may be useful for the surgical oncologist for intraoperative molecular imaging of positive LNs from lung cancer.

Abstract Image

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上皮细胞粘附分子是荧光引导淋巴结成像的精确靶标。

目的：淋巴结（LN）切除是肿瘤外科手术中重要的治疗和诊断信息。LN评估有助于癌症分期、预测预后和提高生存率。外科肿瘤学家的最终愿望是定位和解剖所有病理阳性的LNs，同时避免切除真阴性LNs的发病率。我们研究的目的是确定一个可靠的标记物，用于术中非小细胞肺癌LN与非小细胞肺癌LN的分子成像。我们鉴定了上皮细胞粘附分子（EpCAM），这是一种在包括肺在内的上皮组织中正常表达的膜蛋白。我们用偶联抗epcam单克隆抗体对人标本进行免疫荧光染色。结果：48例原发性肺癌切除患者的阳性LNs中，有转移的LNs中荧光明显升高。在肺门和纵隔淋巴结及所有原发肿瘤组织中均可见高荧光。结论：EpCAM可用于外科肿瘤学家术中肺癌阳性l5的分子成像。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Molecular Imaging and Biology 医学-核医学

CiteScore

6.90

自引率

3.20%

发文量

审稿时长

3 months

期刊介绍： Molecular Imaging and Biology (MIB) invites original contributions (research articles, review articles, commentaries, etc.) on the utilization of molecular imaging (i.e., nuclear imaging, optical imaging, autoradiography and pathology, MRI, MPI, ultrasound imaging, radiomics/genomics etc.) to investigate questions related to biology and health. The objective of MIB is to provide a forum to the discovery of molecular mechanisms of disease through the use of imaging techniques. We aim to investigate the biological nature of disease in patients and establish new molecular imaging diagnostic and therapy procedures. Some areas that are covered are: Preclinical and clinical imaging of macromolecular targets (e.g., genes, receptors, enzymes) involved in significant biological processes. The design, characterization, and study of new molecular imaging probes and contrast agents for the functional interrogation of macromolecular targets. Development and evaluation of imaging systems including instrumentation, image reconstruction algorithms, image analysis, and display. Development of molecular assay approaches leading to quantification of the biological information obtained in molecular imaging. Study of in vivo animal models of disease for the development of new molecular diagnostics and therapeutics. Extension of in vitro and in vivo discoveries using disease models, into well designed clinical research investigations. Clinical molecular imaging involving clinical investigations, clinical trials and medical management or cost-effectiveness studies.