Imaging Colon Cancer Response Following Treatment with AZD1152: A Preclinical Analysis of [18F]Fluoro-2-deoxyglucose and 3′-deoxy-3′-[18F]Fluorothymidine Imaging

Purpose: To determine whether treatment response to the Aurora B kinase inhibitor, AZD1152, could be monitored early in the course of therapy by noninvasive [F-18]-labeled fluoro-2-deoxyglucose, [F-18]FDG, and/or 3'-deoxy-3'-[F-18] fluorothymidine, [F-18]FLT, PET imaging. Experimental design: AZD1152-treated and control HCT116 and SW620 xenograft-bearing animals were monitored for tumor size and by [F-18]FDG, and [F-18]FLT PET imaging. Additional studies assessed the endogenous and exogenous contributions of thymidine synthesis in the two cell lines. Results: Both xenografts showed a significant volume-reduction to AZD1152. In contrast, [F-18]FDG uptake did not demonstrate a treatment response. [F-18]FLT uptake decreased to less than 20% of control values in AZD1152-treated HCT116 xenografts, whereas [F-18]FLT uptake was near background levels in both treated and untreated SW620 xenografts. The EC50 for AZD1152-HQPA was approximately 10 nmol/L in both SW620 and HCT116 cells; in contrast, SW620 cells were much more sensitive to methotrexate (MTX) and 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) than HCT116 cells. Immunoblot analysis demonstrated marginally lower expression of thymidine kinase in SW620 compared with HCT116 cells. The aforementioned results suggest that SW620 xenografts have a higher dependency on the de novo pathway of thymidine utilization than HCT116 xenografts. Conclusions: AZD1152 treatment showed antitumor efficacy in both colon cancer xenografts. Although [F-18]FDG PET was inadequate in monitoring treatment response, [F-18]FLT PET was very effective in monitoring response in HCT116 xenografts, but not in SW620 xenografts. These observations suggest that de novo thymidine synthesis could be a limitation and confounding factor for [F-18]FLT PET imaging and quantification of tumor proliferation, and this may apply to some clinical studies as well. Clin Cancer Res; 17(5); 1099-110. (C)2011 AACR.