Due to copyright issues, an electronic copy of the thesis must be ordered from the faculty. For the faculty to have time to process the order, the order must be received by the faculty at the latest 2 days before the public defence. Orders received later than 2 days before the defence will not be processed. After the public defence, please address any inquiries regarding the thesis to the candidate.
Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Associate Professor Francesco Cicone, University of Catanzaro, Italy
- Second opponent: Clinical Professor Lena Specht, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Trond Mogens Aaløkken, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor II Nils Einar Kløw, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Associate Professor Caroline Stokke, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Summary
Indolent B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) are often diagnosed in advanced stages and considered incurable with available treatments. There is an unmet need to find an effective cure for these patients.
Advances in nuclear medicine - hybrid imaging, radionuclide treatment- and monoclonal antibody (mAb) technologies have revolutionized oncology during the past three decades. Radioimmunotherapy with radioactive mAbs, delivering radioactivity to cancer cells with minimal damage to normal tissue was one of these advances. Radioactive mAb, 177Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan (Betalutin®), was developed at the Norwegian Radium Hospital where the first-in-human phase 1/2a study (LYMRIT 37-01) started in 2012. The radioactive component 177Lutetium (177Lu) emits beta-particles for localized cell killing, in addition to γ-photons permitting imaging with a hybrid imaging modality; (SPECT/CT). This enables in vivo measurements of the amount of radioactivity hence absorbed radiation doses in tumors. Another hybrid imaging modality - FDG PET/CT – which promoted the concept of "image adapted therapy" in lymphomas was assessed to measure treatment effects based on the changes in uptake intensities and tumor volumes after treatment.
The aim of this sub-study with 21 patients was to calculate tumor absorbed radiation doses based on SPECT/CT after treatment with 177Lu-lilotomab satetraxetan, measure treatment-related changes on FDG PET/CT performed at baseline and at 3- and 6 months and analyze the correlations between these set of parameters.
Overall, no correlations were found between tumor absorbed radiation doses and response based on FDG PET/CT parameters in selected lesions. While a tumor absorbed dose-response correlation was not found for individual lesions, the results indicate that a correlation can be found at the patient level. Tumor radiation absorbed doses ≥200cGy at patient level may ensure response, while large variations in response should be expected < 200cGy.
Additional information
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