Lesson of the month: novel method to quantify neutrophil uptake in early lung cancer using SPECT-CT.

Neutrophils play an important role in the lung tumour microenvironment. We hypothesised that radiolabelled neutrophils coupled to single-photon emission CT (SPECT) may non-invasively quantify neutrophil uptake in tumours from patients with non-small cell lung cancer. We demonstrated increased uptake of radiolabelled neutrophils from the blood into tumours compared with non-specific uptake using radiolabelled transferrin. Moreover, indium-111-neutrophil activity in the tumour biopsies also correlated with myeloperoxidase (MPO)-positive neutrophils. Our data support the utility of imaging with In-111-labelled neutrophils and SPECT-CT to quantify neutrophil uptake in lung cancer.
Competing Interests: Competing interests: EC has received grants and personal fees from GlaxoSmithKline and Roche, and grants from AstraZeneca, MedImmune, and Boehringer Ingelheim, outside of the submitted work. Work in CS’ laboratory is supported by research grants from the Wellcome Trust, Medical Research Council, British Heart Foundation, Cambridge NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, AstraZeneca/MedImmune, Bristol Myers Squibb, and GlaxoSmithKline.
(© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2020. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ.)