| Popis: |
Over the past decades, targeting the tumor microenvironment has emerged as a new and interesting strategy to treat cancer. In parallel, improved overall patient survival and durable clinical responses have been made possible in a subset of patients with the introduction of immunotherapy, more specifically via the discovery and inhibition of different immune checkpoints. However, response rates remain low with the current available immune checkpoint inhibitors, mainly due to the presence or formation of an immunosuppressive environment in the tumor. Therefore research is ongoing to discover new targets for alleviating this immunosuppressive environment. Recently, RANKL and CD70 emerged as potential targets to create a more immune-susceptible environment in the tumor. The aim of this thesis is to develop and validate immuno-PET radiotracers targeting RANKL and CD70 in preclinical tumor models to understand, map and longitudinally monitor expression in the TME and assist in cancer characterization and treatment. |
