The HERPET study: Imaging HER2 expression in breast cancer with the novel PET tracer [¹⁸F]GE-226, a first-in-patient study.

3069 Background: Over-expression the human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) is seen in 20% of breast cancers; this is an adverse prognostic factor and used to guide therapy selection. At present HER2 expression can only be determined using biopsy material using immunohistochemistry or fluorescence in situ hybridisation. Heterogeneous expression of HER2 is now being recognised as a cause of treatment resistance but is difficult to characterise. A non-invasive method for determining HER2 expression could have several advantages and help select appropriate therapy for patients. GE-226 is a novel radiolabelled GE-Affibody radioligand which binds to the HER2 receptor with high affinity at a different epitope than trastuzumab. Methods: Patients with locally advanced or metastatic breast cancer were recruited and scanned for 65 mins after iv injection of 200MBq of GE-226 (mean activity injected for each patient 202MBq (range 164-223MBq, mean radiochemical purity 94%) of radioligand, over one bed position for dynamic imaging, followed by a half-body scan. Blood sampling was used to measure metabolism of the tracer. Safety was assessed. HER2-extracellular domain (ECD) domain was measured in blood. Tumoural uptake was quantified by semi-quantitative and fquantitative parameters in HER2 positive and HER2 negative tumours. Patients had routine baseline FDG imaging. Results: Twenty patients completed the study. GE-226 scans were well tolerated. There were no serious adverse events. GE-226 was slowly metabolised into a single metabolite in the liver; 97% of parent remained at 60 minutes post injection (range 82-100). There was a significant difference in tumoural radioligand uptake between biopsy proven HER2 positive and HER2 negative tumoural patients as measured by SUVmean and SUVmax (p < 0.001). Comparing HER2 positive to HER2 negative cases, there was also a significant difference between tumour to normal tissue uptake ratios SUVmean. Heterogeneous uptake was observed in three patients, two with interlesional uptake variation and one with intralesional heterogeneity. Tumoural uptake increased over time. Normal physiological uptake in salivary glands and the thyroid gland was noted. GE-226 was able to differentiate between lymphadenopathy due to sarcoidosis and cancer in one patient and was superior to FDG which had shown widespread uptake in the benign and malignant nodes. Conclusions: [18F]GE-226 imaging is well tolerated and shows promise for imaging of HER2 positive breast cancer. Further studies with this agent are now planned. Clinical trial information: NCT03827317.