Matching the reaction-diffusion simulation to dynamic [18F]FMISO PET measurements in tumors: extension to a flow-limited oxygen-dependent model

In silico study on radiobiological efficacy of Ac-225 and Lu-177 for PSMA-guided radiotherapy

The good efficacy of radioligand therapy (RLT) targeting prostate specific-membrane antigen (PSMA) for the treatment of metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) has been recently demonstrated in several clinical studies. However, the treatment effect of ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-ligands is still suboptimal for a significant fraction of patients. In contrast to external beam radiotherapy, the radiation dose distribution itself is strongly influenced by the heterogeneous tumour microenvironment. Although microdosimetry is critical for RLT treatment outcome, it is difficult to clinically or experimentally establish the quantitative relation. We propose an in silico approach to quantitatively investigate the microdosimetry and its influence on treatment outcome for PSMA-directed RLT of two different radioisotopes ¹⁷⁷Lu and ²²⁵ Ac. The ultimate goal is optimize the combined ¹⁷⁷ Lu and ²²⁵ Ac-PSMA therapy and maximize the anti-tumour effect, while minimizing irradiation of off-target tissues.Clinical relevance- With the proposed hybrid model we show that ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-ligands treatment assures a more homogeneously distributed dose and a lower dependency of the treatment outcome on the domain vascularisation. On the other hand, the ²²⁵Ac-PSMA-ligands treatment shows a much stronger efficacy in killing tumor cells with an equivalent mean dose distribution even in an hypoxic environment.

Is Hypoxia a Factor Influencing PSMA-Directed Radioligand Therapy?-An In Silico Study on the Role of Chronic Hypoxia in Prostate Cancer

Simple Summary

Tumor hypoxia is considered a critical factor associated with the resistance of conventional radiotherapy, where the X-ray-induced free radicals lead to DNA damage in a manner that is strongly dependent on the tissue oxygenation. The emerging PSMA-directed radioligand therapy (RLT) employs the α or β particles emitted by the radiopharmaceuticals to kill the tumor cells. In contrast to conventional therapy, the induced DNA damage is less dependent on the oxygenation status. Less attention has been paid to investigating whether tumor hypoxia will influence the efficacy of PSMA-directed RLT. We propose a histology-driven in silico model to quantitatively investigate the influence of tumor hypoxia on the treatment outcome for PSMA-directed RLT with 177Lu and 225Ac. Our finding suggests that hypoxia is a factor to be considered for the application of PSMA-directed RLT.

Abstract

Radioligand therapy (RLT) targeting prostate specific-membrane antigen (PSMA) is an emerging treatment for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). It administrates 225Ac- or 177Lu-labeled ligands for the targeted killing of tumor cells. Differently from X- or γ-ray, for the emitted α or β particles the ionization of the DNA molecule is less dependent on the tissue oxygenation status. Furthermore, the diffusion range of electrons in a tumor is much larger than the volume typically spanned by hypoxic regions. Therefore, hypoxia is less investigated as an influential factor for PSMA-directed RLT, in particular with β emitters. This study proposes an in silico approach to theoretically investigate the influence of tumor hypoxia on the PSMA-directed RLT. Based on mice histology images, the distribution of the radiopharmaceuticals was simulated with an in silico PBPK-based convection–reaction–diffusion model. Three anti-CD31 immunohistochemistry slices were used to simulate the tumor microenvironment. Ten regions of interest with varying hypoxia severity were analyzed. A kernel-based method was developed for dose calculation. The cell survival probability was calculated according to the linear-quadratic model. The statistical analysis performed on all the regions of interest (ROIs) shows more heterogeneous dose distributions obtained with 225Ac compared to 177Lu. The higher homogeneity of 177Lu-PSMA-ligand treatment is due to the larger range covered by the emitted β particles. The dose-to-tissue histogram (DTH) metric shows that in poorly vascularized ROIs only 10% of radiobiological hypoxic tissue receives the target dose using 177Lu-PSMA-ligand treatment. This percentage drops down to 5% using 225Ac. In highly vascularized ROIs, the percentage of hypoxic tissue receiving the target dose increases to more than 85% and 65% for the 177Lu and 225Ac-PSMA-ligands, respectively. The in silico study demonstrated that the reduced vascularization of the tumor strongly influences the dose delivered by PSMA-directed RLT, especially in hypoxic regions and consequently the treatment outcome.