A study using a radioactive tracer to learn more about a substance found in cells (IMPACT)

Cancer type:

All cancer types

Status:

Results

Phase:

Pilot

Integrin alpha v beta six (αvβ6) is a substance found in high levels in some cancer cells. It plays a role in cancer developing and spreading.

This study was for people with a solid cancer Open a glossary item .

The study was open for people to join between 2016 and 2019. The team reported the results in 2025.

More about this trial

In this study doctors used a radioactive Open a glossary item tracer called [18F]-FBA-A20FMDV2. People in the study had a PET scan. Before the scan everyone had a small plastic tube put into a vein in their arm. This is called a cannula. The doctor injected the tracer into the cannula before the people had the scan.

FBA-A20FMDV2 sticks to integrin αvβ6. The doctors hoped using the tracer with the scan would make it easier to find cancer. They also hoped they would be able to measure the amount of integrin αvβ6 in the cancer cells.

This in turn would help them to understand more about the cancer.

First, they needed to find out if a PET scan using this tracer worked. This study was for people with a solid cancer.

Summary of results

10 people with a solid cancer took part in this study. They had a PET scan using this tracer.

The team found that for 7 out of the 10 people the PET scan showed either a cancer or cancer that had spread.

They found that the body organs that had the highest amount of [18F]-FBA-A20FMDV2 were the:

kidneys
stomach
liver
spleen
the main part of the bones in the spine (vertebrae)

For cancer of the pancreas the amount of the tracer in the cancer tissue was less than the normal tissue.

For cancer that had spread to the liver the amount of the tracer in both the normal tissue and cancer tissue was varied and no pattern was seen.

Conclusion
The team weren't able to draw any firm conclusions because of the small number of people who took part. As far as we are aware there are no other studies looking at this tracer.

Where this information comes from
We have based this summary on information from the research team. As far as we are aware, the information they sent us has not been reviewed independently (peer reviewed Open a glossary item ) or published in a medical journal yet. The figures we quote above were provided by the research team. We have not analysed the data ourselves.