The Latest Developments in Imaging of Fibroblast Activation Protein

Abstract

Fibroblast activation protein (FAP), a membrane-anchored peptidase, is highly expressed in cancer-associated fibroblasts in more than 90% of epithelial tumors and contributes to progression and worse prognosis of different cancers. Therefore, FAP is considered a promising target for radionuclide-based approaches for diagnosis and treatment of tumors and for the diagnosis of nonmalignant diseases associated with a remodeling of the extracellular matrix. Accordingly, a variety of quinolone-based FAP inhibitors (FAPIs) coupled to chelators were developed displaying specific binding to human and murine FAP with a rapid and almost complete internalization. Because of a high tumor uptake and a very low accumulation in normal tissues, as well as a rapid clearance from the circulation, a high contrast is obtained for FAPI PET/CT imaging even at 10 min after tracer administration. Moreover, FAPI PET/CT provides advantages over ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT in several tumor entities for initial staging and detection of tumor recurrence and metastases, including peritonitis carcinomatosa.

Keywords: FAPI; PET; SPECT; fibroblast-activating protein; imaging; theranostics.