In another project, Richard Ambinder, M.D., Ph.D., is also using theranostic imaging in a study of 24 patients with Kaposi's sarcoma, using PET scans, another type of noninvasive imaging, to guide a viral-activated drug, called bortezomib, to kill tumor cells.

Peter van Zijl, Ph.D., and Dmitri Artemov, Ph.D., will study magnetic resonance imaging techniques to detect the earliest possible metabolic and biological changes in breast cancer. Their goal is to find proteins or other small molecules that could serve as early warning signs of cancerous spread and, in combination with other genetic tests, identify women most at risk for cancer spread.

Kristine Glunde, Ph.D., and Xingde Li, Ph.D., are experimenting with laser imaging to analyze collagen fibers in breast cancer tumors. Studies have shown these fibers in distinct patterns in metastatic cancer, patterns that could be useful, in combination with other tests, to distinguish between women who need lymph node biopsy to see if their cancer is spreading, and those who do not.

Also funded by the latest grant will be a group of imaging pilot studies to measure the speed of skin cancer progression, led by Steven An, Ph.D.; to determine the amount of tumor shrinkage during pancreatic cancer treatment, led by Anirban Maitra, M.D., Ph.D.; to learn how cancer spreads to the lungs, led by Phuoc Tran, M.D., Ph.D.; and to evaluate novel treatments to prevent the spread of kidney cancer to the bones, led by Kristy Weber, M.D.

A portion of the grant will also be awarded to Mary-France Penet, Ph.D., for career development, under the direction of Peter Barker, Ph.D. Research infrastructure support in molecular oncology research methods will be co-directed by Venu Raman, Ph.D., and Elizabeth Jaffee, M.D.; in imaging and probe development, directed by Wahl and Artemov; and in biostatistics analysis, directed by Peng Huang, Ph.D.

Source Johns Hopkins