ProCA1.GRPR: a new imaging agent in cancer detection

Precision molecular imaging addresses major medical gaps including the early detection of small lesion and biomarker expression, especially for high-risk patients, and monitoring the dynamic changes of biomarkers during disease progression and upon therapeutic treatment. One of the major challenges in achieving precision medicine is developing our capabilities to select patients with genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity while monitoring treatment responses. Current golden standard of histological analysis coupled with biopsy has many limitations, such as invasiveness, significant sampling errors especially for small lesions and risks of tumor peritoneal seeding [1]. Important avenues to achieve these goals include identifying biomarkers whose expression are capable of accurately reflect disease stages and treatment effects, and developing sensitive and noninvasive precision molecular imaging methodology for early responsive, predictive and prognostic biomarkers with increased levels of spatial and temporal resolution [2]. Here, we will first discuss GRPR as an attractive biomarker for molecular imaging of various types of cancers. We will then report our development of protein-based MRI contrast agent against GRPR with significantly improved sensitivity and spatial resolution.

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