Investigational radiotracer has 'extremely valuable' potential for treating chronic condition
Newly published data highlight the promise of an investigational radiotracer in improving the diagnosis of endometriosis.
Published in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology & Women’s Health, the new findings suggest that 99mTc-maraciclatide can help physicians more accurately identify endometriosis on imaging. It is especially beneficial for detecting superficial peritoneal endometriosis using SPECT-CT imaging, which is known to be challenging to detect and often requires laparoscopic surgery to diagnose.
99mTc-maraciclatide is a gamma-emitting radiotracer that is upregulated during the inflammation-associated formation of new blood vessels, a process that has been linked to the growth of endometriotic lesions. Its utility as an endometriosis-targeting radiotracer is currently being explored in the DETECT study.
For the analysis, researchers recruited 20 women with confirmed or suspected endometriosis. Each participant underwent SPECT/CT imaging with the tracer prior to having either laparoscopic or thoracoscopic surgery. Primary outcomes were based on agreement between imaging and surgical findings.
So far, the study has yielded promising results with respect to both safety and detection utility. Radiological results were in line with surgical findings for 16 out of 19 participants. Participant-level sensitivity was calculated to be 82%, while specificity reached 100%. In terms of safety, there have been no serious adverse events reported with the tracer’s use thus far.
Experts involved in the study are hopeful their findings foreshadow how the tracer would perform in routine clinical settings.
“These exciting findings indicate that maraciclatide offers a highly promising diagnostic and monitoring tool, particularly for superficial peritoneal endometriosis, which is the most common and yet the hardest type of endometriosis to identify,” noted Tatjana Gibbons, MBBS, lead author and investigator on the study, who works with the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford. “We are hugely grateful to the patients who have participated in the DETECT study without whom investigating this diagnostic approach would not have been possible.”
“If these Phase 2 results are reproduced in the Phase 3 studies, maraciclatide has the potential to be an extremely valuable tool, as it could both reduce diagnostic delays and provide a validated endpoint for the development of new therapeutics,” added Professor Christian Becker, co-director of the Endometriosis Care Center in Oxford, co-lead on the study and joint senior co-author on the paper.
Phase 3 of the trial is set to launch later this year.
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.