Differential expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) has been implicated in leukemogenesis. We investigate the expression pattern of miR-196b. Using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), we detected the expression of miR196b and its correlated genes (SMC1A/MLH1) in initial pediatric AML. A significant association was observed between overexpression of miR-196b and inferior overall survival of pediatric AML (Log Rank P< 0.0001). AML M4/5 subtype, high white blood cell (WBC) count at presentation, MLL rearrangement, or FLT3-ITD mutation at diagnosis and non-remission group after the first induction chemotherapy possessed higher miR-196b expression. Furthermore, a positive relationship was found between the expression of miR-196b and SMC1A/MLH1 (Spearman's r= 0.37 and 0.44, P= 0.001 and < 0.0001, respectively). Taken together, these findings suggest that differentially high expression of miR-196b in diagnostic marrow samples of pediatric AML is associated with unfavorable outcome, and miR-196b potentially can be a novel biomarker for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment in pediatric AML.

Purpose To demonstrate that anti-MG1 conjugated hybrid magnetic gold nanoparticles (HNPs) act as a catalyst during photothermal ablation (PTA) of colorectal liver metastases, and thus increase ablation zones. Materials and Methods All experiments were performed with approval of the institutional animal care and use committee. Therapeutic and diagnostic multifunctional HNPs conjugated with anti-MG1 monoclonal antibodies were synthesized, and the coupling efficiency was determined. Livers of 19 Wistar rats were implanted with 5 × 106 rat colorectal liver metastasis cell line cells. The rats were divided into three groups according to injection: anti-MG1-coupled HNPs (n = 6), HNPs only (n = 6), and cells only (control group, n = 7). Voxel-wise R2 and R2* magnetic resonance (MR) imaging measurements were obtained before, immediately after, and 24 hours after injection. PTA was then performed with a fiber-coupled near-infrared (808 nm) diode laser with laser power of 0.56 W/cm2 for 3 minutes, while temperature changes were measured. Tumors were assessed for necrosis with hematoxylin-eosin staining. Organs were analyzed with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to assess biodistribution. Therapeutic efficacy and tumor necrosis area were compared by using a one-way analysis of variance with post hoc analysis for statistically significant differences. Results The coupling efficiency was 22 μg/mg (55%). Significant differences were found between preinfusion and 24-hour postinfusion measurements of both T2 (repeated measures analysis of variance, P = .025) and T2* (P < .001). Significant differences also existed for T2* measurements between the anti-MG1 HNP and HNP-only groups (P = .034). Mean temperature ± standard deviation with PTA in the anti-MG1-coated HNP, HNP, and control groups was 50.2°C ± 7.8, 51°C ± 4.4, and 39.5°C ± 2.0, respectively. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry revealed significant tumor targeting and splenic sequestration. Mean percentages of tumor necrosis in the anti-MG1-coated HNP, HNP, and control groups were 38% ± 29, 14% ± 17, and 7% ± 8, respectively (P = .043). Conclusion Targeted monoclonal antibody-conjugated HNPs can serve as a catalyst for photothermal ablation of colorectal liver metastases by increasing ablation zones. © RSNA, 2017.

Although diagnosis and treatment of gastric cancer have improved, the prognosis of patients remains poor. The majority of patients should be treated with chemotherapy or other follow-up treatment. However, the drug resistance of chemotherapy and heterogeneity of tumor itself lead to differences of sensitivity of chemotherapy drugs for different patients. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop better methods of treatment for treatment of gastric cancer. Calycosin has been used in several types of cancer cells. Cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and adriamycin (ADM) are most widely used drugs for chemotherapy, and they improve the overall survival of cancer patients. To study whether and how calycosin enhances their inhibition of gastric cancer cells, we detected the signaling pathway in which calycosin and cisplatin, 5-FU, and ADM play role in human gastric cells lines. We found that calycosin can enhance the suppression of cisplatin to gastric cell line by inhibiting the phosphorylation of protein kinase B (Akt). So, when cisplatin/5-FU/ADM is combined with calycosin, it can achieve better therapeutic effect in lower concentration.

AIMS:Circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) as biomarkers for leukemia have been validated by emerging studies. This meta-analysis aims to estimate the overall diagnostic accuracy of blood-based circulating miRNAs for leukemia.METHODS:We searched multiple databases (PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CNKI, Wan Fang Data and CQVIP) up to June 18, 2015.RESULTS:32 studies from 10 publications were included in this meta-analysis. Diagnostic capacity was evaluated by pooled sensitivity, specifIcity, positive likelihood ratio (PLR), negative likelihood ratio (NLR), diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), and area under the curve (AUC) through random-effects model. Sensitivity analyses were sequentially performed to find potential sources of heterogeneity. The quality of included studies was assessed by QUADAS (quality assessment for studies of diagnostic accuracy). Meta-Disc 1.4 and Stata 12.0 software were used to perform the meta-analysis. A high diagnostic accuracy was displayed, with a sensitivity of 0.84, a specificity of 0.88, a PLR of 7.20, a NLR of 0.18, a DOR of 52, and an AUC of 0.94. Subgroup analyses revealed better performance for combined miRNAs, acute myeloid leukemia patients and Asian population than other subgroups.CONCLUSION:Our analyses suggested that blood-based circulating miRNAs are promising diagnostic biomarkers for leukemia, especially combined miRNAs. Its clinical application awaits further study.

Aim: To test the hypothesis that MRI can monitor intraportal vein (IPV) transcatheter delivery of clinically applicable heparin-protamine-ferumoxytol (HPF) nanocomplex-labeled natural killer (NK) cells to liver tumor. Materials & methods: Liver tumor rat models underwent catheterization for IPV infusion of HPF-labeled NK cells (NK-92MI cell line). MRI measurements within tumor and adjacent liver tissues were compared pre- and post-NK cell infusion. Histology studies were used to identify NK cells in the target tumors. Results: For first time, we demonstrated that MRI tracks HPF-labeled NK cells migration within liver following IPV delivery. Conclusion: IPV transcatheter infusion permitted selective delivery of NK cells to liver tissues and MRI allowed tracking NK cell biodistributions within the tumors.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the five most lethal malignancies and has a poor prognosis due to its abundant stromal barriers and lack of effective available therapies.

PURPOSE To test the following hypotheses in a murine model of pancreatic cancer: (a) Vaccination with antigen-loaded iron-labeled dendritic cells reduces T2-weighted signal intensity at magnetic resonance (MR) imaging within peripheral draining lymph nodes ( LN lymph node s) and (b) such signal intensity reductions are associated with tumor size changes after dendritic cell vaccination. MATERIALS AND METHODS The institutional animal care and use committee approved this study. Panc02 cells were implanted into the flanks of 27 C57BL/6 mice bilaterally. After tumors reached 10 mm, cell viability was evaluated, and iron-labeled dendritic cell vaccines were injected into the left hind footpad. The mice were randomly separated into the following three groups (n = 9 in each): Group 1 was injected with 1 million iron-labeled dendritic cells; group 2, with 2 million cells; and control mice, with 200 mL of phosphate-buffered saline. T1- and T2-weighted MR imaging of labeled dendritic cell migration to draining LN lymph node s was performed before cell injection and 6 and 24 hours after injection. The signal-to-noise ratio ( SNR signal-to-noise ratio ) of the draining LN lymph node s was measured. One-way analysis of variance ( ANOVA analysis of variance ) was used to compare Prussian blue-positive dendritic cell measurements in LN lymph node s. Repeated-measures ANOVA analysis of variance was used to compare in vivo T2-weighted SNR signal-to-noise ratio LN lymph node measurements between groups over the observation time points. RESULTS Trypan blue assays showed no significant difference in mean viability indexes (unlabeled vs labeled dendritic cells, 4.32% ± 0.69 [standard deviation] vs 4.83% ± 0.76; P = .385). Thirty-five days after injection, the mean left and right flank tumor sizes, respectively, were 112.7 mm(2) ± 16.4 and 109 mm(2) ± 24.3 for the 1-million dendritic cell group, 92.2 mm(2) ± 9.9 and 90.4 mm(2) ± 12.8 for the 2-million dendritic cell group, and 193.7 mm(2) ± 20.9 and 189.4 mm(2) ± 17.8 for the control group (P = .0001 for control group vs 1-million cell group; P = .00007 for control group vs 2-million cell group). There was a correlation between postinjection T2-weighted SNR signal-to-noise ratio decreases in the left popliteal LN lymph node 24 hours after injection and size changes at follow-up for tumors in both flanks (R = 0.81 and R = 0.76 for left and right tumors, respectively). CONCLUSION MR imaging approaches can be used for quantitative measurement of accumulated iron-labeled dendritic cell-based vaccines in draining LN lymph node s. The amount of dendritic cell-based vaccine in draining LN lymph node s correlates well with observed protective effects.

Elastography is a non-invasive method to quantify fibrosis based on tissue mechanical properties. We performed a meta-analysis to assess the diagnostic accuracy of two such techniques: Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse Imaging (ARFI) or Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) for staging hepatic fibrosis.

Magnetic nanoclusters coated with ruthenium (II) complexes doped with silica (fluorescent magnetic nanoparticles or FMNPs) could be used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and optical imaging (OI) of human breast cancer. To achieve the targeting imaging of tumors, the peptide cyclic-arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD) was chosen as the probe for specific targeting integrin αvβ3 over expressed in human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. The cytotoxicity tests in vitro showed little toxicity of the synthesized RGD-FMNPs with the size of 150 nm. The in vivo study also showed no obvious acute toxicity after the injection of RGD-FMNPs in mice bearing MDA-MB-231 tumors. After 24 hours of co-culture with MDA-MB-231 cells, the cellular uptake of RGD-FMNPs significantly increased compared to that of FMNPs. T2-weighted (T2W) MRI demonstrated a negative enhancement in mice injected with RGD-FMNPs approximately three times of that injected with FMNPs (12.867 ± 0.451 ms vs. 4.833 ± 0.513 ms, P < 0.05). The Prussian blue staining results confirmed more RGD-FMNPs accumulated around the tumors than FMNPs. These results demonstrated the potential application of RGD-FMNPs as a targeting molecular probe for detection of breast cancer using MRI and OI. The synthesized RGD-FMNPs could be potentially used for biomedical imaging in the future.

Purpose: Photothermal ablation is a minimally invasive approach, which typically involves delivery of photothermal sensitizers to targeted tissues. The purpose of our study was to demonstrate that gold nanoparticles are phagocytosed by pancreatic cancer cells, thus permitting magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of sensitizer delivery and photothermal ablation.Patients and methods: Iron-oxide core/gold-shell nanoparticles (GoldMag(R), 30 nm diameter; Xi'an GoldMag Biotechnology Co, Xi'an, People's Republic of China) were used. In a 96-well plate, 3 x 10(4) PANC-1 (human pancreatic cancer cell line) cells were placed. GoldMag (0, 25, or 50 mu g/mL) was added to each well and 24 hours allowed for cellular uptake. Samples were then divided into two groups: one treated with photothermal ablation (7.9 W/cm(2)) for 5 minutes, the other not treated. Photothermal ablation was performed using laser system (BWF5; B&W Tek, Inc, Newark, DE, USA). Intraprocedural temperature changes were measured using a fiber optic temperature probe (FTP-LN2; Photon Control Inc, Burnaby, BC, Canada). After 24 hours, the remaining number of viable cells was counted using trypan blue staining; cell proliferation percentage was calculated based on the total number of viable cells after treatment compared with control. MRI of GoldMag uptake was performed using a 7.0T ClinScan system (Bruker BioSpin, Ettlingen, Germany).Results: Temperature curves demonstrated that with increased GoldMag uptake, laser irradiation produced higher temperature elevations in the corresponding samples; temperature elevations of 12.89 degrees C, 35.16 degrees C, and 79.51 degrees C were achieved for 0, 25, and 50 mu g/mL GoldMag. Without photothermal ablation, the cell proliferation percentage changed from 100% to 71.3% and 47.0% for cells treated with 25 and 50 mu g/mL GoldMag. Photothermal ablation of PANC-1 cells demonstrated an effective treatment response, specifically a reduction to only 61%, 21.9%, and 2.3% cell proliferation for cells treated with 0, 25, and 50 mu g/mL GoldMag. MRI was able to visualize GoldMag uptake within PANC-1 cells.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that photothermal ablation may be effective in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. GoldMag nanoparticles could serve as photothermal sensitizers, and MRI is feasible to quantify delivery.

To improve the efficacy of gemcitabine (GEM) for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer via local hyperthermia potentiated via a multi‐functional nanoplatform permitting both in vivo heating and drug delivery is the goal of this study. Here, a chemohyperthermia approach to synergistically achieve high intra‐tumoral drug concentrations, while permitting concurrent hyperthermia for more effective tumor cell kill and growth inhibition, is proposed. Drug delivery and hyperthermia are achieved using a hydroxypropyl cellulose (HPC)‐grafted porous magnetic drug carrier that is MRI visible to permit in vivo visualization of the biodistribution. These synthesized magnetic drug carriers produce strong T 2 ‐weighted image contrast and permit efficient heating using low‐magnetic‐field intensities. The thermomechanical response of HPC permits triggered GEM release confirmed during in vitro drug release studies. During in vitro studies, pancreatic cancer cell growth is significantly inhibited (≈82% reduction) with chemohyperthermia compared to chemotherapy or hyperthermia alone. Using PANC‐1 xenografts in nude mice, the delivery of injected GEM‐loaded magnetic carriers (GEM‐magnetic carriers) is visualized with both MRI and fluorescent imaging techniques. Chemohyperthermia with intra‐tumoral injections of GEM‐magnetic carriers (followed by heating) results in significant increases in apoptotic cell death compared to tumors treated with GEM‐magnetic carriers injections alone. Chemohyperthermia with GEM‐magnetic carriers offers the potential to significantly improve the therapeutic efficacy of GEM for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. In vivo delivery confirmation with non‐invasive imaging techniques could permit patient‐specific adjustments therapeutic regimens for improve longitudinal outcomes.

Rationale and Objectives: To compare the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and the perfusion fraction measured by intra-voxel incoherent motion (IVIM) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with liver fibrosis degrees in a rodent model.Materials and Methods: All experiments received approval from our institutional animal care and use committee. Liver fibrosis was induced in 13 rats by oral gavage with diethylnitrosamine; 4 untreated rats with normal livers were used as controls. Diffusion Weighted MRI was performed and 8 gradient factors (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 300, 400 and 500 s/mm(2)) were acquired. The values of ADC, true diffusion coefficient D and perfusion fraction f were measured based on Li Bihan's method. The percentage of liver fibrosis was assessed via quantitative analysis of Masson trichrome staining using an average of 30 fields per section. The MRI measurements were compared to the histological fibrotic grade to evaluate the correlation between them.Results: ADC contained the contribution of diffusion and perfusion. The ADC and f values decreased significantly with the increasing fibrosis level (correlation coefficient: ADC: rho = -0.781, p < 0.001; f: rho = -0.720, p = 0.001); but D was poorly correlated with fibrosis level (rho = -0.502, p = 0.040).Conclusion: The hepatic ADC and the perfusion fraction f were significantly correlated with the liver fibrosis level; however, D was not. This might suggest that hepatic perfusion is altered during the progression of hepatic fibrosis. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Liver-directed intra-arterial therapies are palliative treatment options for patients with unresectable liver cancer; their use has also resulted in patients being downstaged leading to curative resection and transplantation. These intra-arterial therapies include transarterial embolization, conventional transarterial chemoembolization (TACE), drug-eluting bead TACE and radioembolization. Assessment of imaging response following these liver-directed intra-arterial therapies is challenging but pivotal for patient management. Size measurements based on computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been traditionally used to assess tumor response to therapy. However, these anatomic changes lag behind functional changes and may require months to occur. Further, these intra-arterial therapies cause acute tumor necrosis, which may result in a paradoxical increase in tumor size on early follow-up imaging despite complete cell death or necrosis. This concept is unique comparing to changes seen following systemic chemotherapy. The recent development of functional imaging techniques including diffusion-weighted MRI (DW MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) allow for early assessment of treatment response and even prediction of overall tumor response to intra-arterial therapies. Although the results of DW MRI and PET studies are promising, the impact of these imaging modalities to assess treatment response has been limited without standardized protocols. The aim of this review article is to delineate the best practice for assessing tumor response in patients with primary or secondary hepatic malignancies undergoing intra-arterial therapies.

Nanoparticles (NP) have emerged as a novel class of therapeutic agents that overcome many of the limitations of current cancer chemotherapeutics. However, a major challenge to many current NP platforms is unfavorable biodistribution, and limited tumor uptake, upon systemic delivery. Delivery, therefore, remains a critical barrier to widespread clinical adoption of NP therapeutics. To overcome these limitations, we have adapted the techniques of image-guided local drug delivery to develop nanoablation and nanoembolization. Nanoablation is a tumor ablative strategy that employs image-guided placement of electrodes into tumor tissue to electroporate tumor cells, resulting in a rapid influx of NPs that is not dependent on cellular uptake machinery or stage of the cell cycle. Nanoembolization involves the image-guided delivery of NPs and embolic agents directly into the blood supply of tumors. We describe the design and testing of our innovative local delivery strategies using doxorubicin-functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (DOX-SPIOs) in cell culture, and the N1S1 hepatoma and VX2 tumor models, imaged by high resolution 7T MRI. We demonstrate that local delivery techniques result in significantly increased intratumoral DOX-SPIO uptake, with limited off-target delivery in tumor-bearing animal models. The techniques described are versatile enough to be extended to any NP platform, targeting any solid organ malignancy that can be accessed via imaging guidance.

PURPOSE:To investigate the feasibility of combining GESFIDE with PROPELLER sampling approaches for simultaneous abdominal R2 and R2* mapping.MATERIALS AND METHODS:R2 and R2* measurements were performed in 9 healthy volunteers and phantoms using the GESFIDE-PROPELLER and the conventional Cartesian-sampling GESFIDE approaches.RESULTS:Images acquired with the GESFIDE-PROPELLER sequence effectively mitigated the respiratory motion artifacts, which were clearly evident in the images acquired using the conventional GESFIDE approach. There was no significant difference between GESFIDE-PROPELLER and reference MGRE R2* measurements (p=0.162) whereas the Cartesian-sampling based GESFIDE methods significantly overestimated R2* values compared to MGRE measurements (p<0.001).CONCLUSION:The GESFIDE-PROPELLER sequence provided high quality images and accurate abdominal R2 and R2* maps while avoiding the motion artifacts common to the conventional Cartesian-sampling GESFIDE approaches.

PURPOSE: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the 4 leading cause of U.S. cancer-related mortality. Currently, patients with PDAC have a dismal prognosis due to a complete lack of effective therapies . Dendritic cells (DC) are one of the most potent antigen-presenting cells (APCs) in the immune system. Development of therapeutic cancer vaccines using DCs loaded with tumor antigens which are transferred to a host enhancing its tumor immune response, is a viable treatment option, however clinical trials have failed to achieve good efficacy. One of the major roadblocks to the development of these immune therapies is the inability to assess effective target acquisition. In this work we demonstrate that ironoxide labeled DCs, loaded with antigens, can be effectively tracked as they “home in” on the lymph nodes 3 . By providing direct MR visualization of DC uptake in lymph node environment one can positively confirm target acquisition and explore the underlying mechanisms more in depth, The research conducted in this work will the development of these cancer vaccines for translational applications METHODS Panc-2 tumor cells (~2 × 10 cells ) were implanted in both right and left flank female C57BL/6 mice and allowed to grow to palpable nodule (~3-5 mm). Bone marrow derived DCs were prepared as described in [1]. After antigen loading as described in [23] DCs were labeled with biocompatible iron nanoparticles FeOLabel-TexasRed (GENOVIS AB, Lund Sweden) as prescribed. Characterization was conducted to evaluate percent of iron and viability of labeled DCs. Iron amount was estimated by MR relaxometry using variable concentration phantoms (0-10 μg/ml). Vaccine administration was performed by injecting the labeled DCs in the left hind footpad of the mice (Three groups: 1) 1e6 cells, 2) 2e6 cells and 3) no cells as control) All MRI experiments (in vitro and ex vivo) were carried out on a Bruker 7 T (Clinscan, Ettlingen, Germany) using multiple spin echo and multiple gradient echo sequences to obtain coronal and axial images of the bilateral popliteal LNs and to generate corresponding parametric maps (Slice Thickness=0.2 mm In plane resolution 0.14 mm) . Animals were scanned at 6 hours and 24 hours after injection of DCs. All physiological parameters were maintained during experiments as prescribed by institutional ACUC standards. Ex vivo assessment of DC loading in popliteal LN was conducted using histological methods for validation of MRI images. Anti-Tumor efficacy of DCs was evaluated using standard vital signs and by measuring tumor volume at different time points following tumor implantation (1,5,10,15,20,25,35 days). RESULTS & DISCUSSION: Shown in Figure 1(a-c) are three coronal T2W images of bilateral popliteal LN’s at different times (a) preinjection of DC’s, (b) 6 hour post and (c) 24 hour post. The left LN exhibits clear signal decrease consistent with migration of iron labeled DC’s (injected in left footpad) while right is unaffected. Prussian blue staining of bilateral popliteal LNs are shown in Fig 1 (d) Right and Fig 1(e) Left, confirming presence of SPIO labeled DC’s in the later (Fig 1(f) is a blow up of region). Also shown in Fig 2 are the tumor size longitudinal measurements for control group compared to group A (1e6 DC’s) and group B (2e6 DC’s) demonstrating the therapeutic efficacy of the treatment

PURPOSE:To demonstrate the feasibility of using chemical shift magnetic resonance (MR) imaging fat-water separation methods for quantitative estimation of transcatheter lipiodol delivery to liver tissues. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Studies were performed in accordance with institutional Animal Care and Use Committee guidelines. Proton nuclear MR spectroscopy was first performed to identify lipiodol spectral peaks and relative amplitudes. Next, phantoms were constructed with increasing lipiodol-water volume fractions. A multiecho chemical shift-based fat-water separation method was used to quantify lipiodol concentration within each phantom. Six rats served as controls; 18 rats underwent catheterization with digital subtraction angiography guidance for intraportal infusion of a 15%, 30%, or 50% by volume lipiodol-saline mixture. MR imaging measurements were used to quantify lipiodol delivery to each rat liver. Lipiodol concentration maps were reconstructed by using both single-peak and multipeak chemical shift models. Intraclass and Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for statistical comparison of MR imaging-based lipiodol concentration and volume measurements to reference standards (known lipiodol phantom compositions and the infused lipiodol dose during rat studies). RESULTS:Both single-peak and multipeak measurements were well correlated to phantom lipiodol concentrations (r(2) > 0.99). Lipiodol volume measurements were progressively and significantly higher when comparing between animals receiving different doses (P < .05 for each comparison). MR imaging-based lipiodol volume measurements strongly correlated with infused dose (intraclass correlation coefficients > 0.93, P < .001) with both single- and multipeak approaches. CONCLUSION:Chemical shift MR imaging fat-water separation methods can be used for quantitative measurements of lipiodol delivery to liver tissues.

Abstract PURPOSE: Multi-functional gold nanoparticles may play an important role in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the feasibility of using these anti-LOXL2 conjugated gold nanoparticles (anti-LOXL2@GoldMag) as therapeutic probes for the treatment of human pancreatic cancer cells. MATERIALS & METHODS: Human pancreatic cancer cell lines (PANC-1, BxPC-3 and Capan-1 cells) was used in this study. Western blot of LOXL2 expression in three cell lines were analyzed and compared to EGFR proteins. GoldMag, the hybrid gold shell and iron oxide core nanoparticles were purchases and their imaging characteristics (R2 and R2* relativity) was measured. Anti-LOXL2@GoldMag probes were constructed according to the instruction and the coupling efficacy of anti-LOXL2 antibodies with GoldMag were tested using a mass spectrophotometer. The specific targeting efficacy of anti-LOXL2@GoldMag was tested using immunofluorescence staining and electronic microscope. Pancreatic cancer cells were treated with anti-LOXL2@GoldMag at the concentrations of 0, 35, 70, 140 and 280 μg/ml and compared to anti-LOXL2 treatment alone at the same dosing concentration. After allowing for 48 hours incubation, the remaining number of viable cells was counted using trypan blue staining; cell proliferation percentage was calculated based on the total number of viable cells after treatment compared to the controls. RESULTS: The therapeutic efficacy of anti-LOXL2@GoldMag demonstrated similar therapeutic efficacy at both lower dose (18-51% reduced total viable cells) and enhanced therapeutic efficacy at the higher dose (86-99% reduced total viable cells) when compared to LOXL2 antibody alone. This suggests that binding of the LOXL2 antibodies to the GoldMag nanoparticles doesn't inhibit immunotherapeutic efficacy. MRI studies demonstrated that R2 and R2* measurements were well correlated to GoldMag probe concentrations. CONCLUSION: Our findings demonstrated significant anti-neoplastic efficacy in three different human pancreatic cancer cell lines. MRI could serve as a non-invasive imaging method to monitor the biodistribution of gold nanoparticles. Further pre-clinical investigations are now warranted in animal models of pancreatic cancer. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2534. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2534