<b>Conclusion:</b> Dual-modality imaging using the anti-PSCA cys-diabody resulted in high-contrast immuno-PET/NIRF images of PDX-PDACs, suggesting that this imaging agent might offer both noninvasive whole-body imaging to localize PSCA-positive pancreatic cancer and fluorescence image-guided identification of tumor margins during surgery.
These findings support the benefit of combining the 4/7 ICR with CAR-PSCA to treat pancreatic cancer, a PSCA-expressing tumor characterized by a dense immunosuppressive environment rich in IL-4.
Further validation showed that overexpression of PSCA was significantly associated with lymph node metastasis, and overexpression of HMGA2 was significantly associated with invasive depth of pancreatic cancer.
While our results provide evidence to support PSCA as a target antigen for CAR-based immunotherapy of pancreatic cancer, the expression of PSCA on selected normal tissues could be a source of limiting toxicity.
RNA from pancreatic and nonpancreatic cancer cell lines as well as tissue and blood from pancreatic cancer and control patients was reverse-transcribed and PSCA quantified by qPCR.
PSCA expression was present in the blood of 22 out of 47 (46.8%) patients with malignant tumors and particularly in 7 out of 11 (63.6%) patients with pancreatic cancer.