Hackensack Meridian Health, New Jersey’s largest and most comprehensive health network recently announced that it is the first hospital network in the Northeast to administer Pixclara®, a groundbreaking FDA-approved PET imaging drug that is used with other diagnostic evaluations for brain cancer to give physicians valuable information.
Pixclara is the first and only positron emission tomography (PET) imaging drug that is specifically indicated to help physicians differentiate recurrent or progressive glioma from treatment-related changes, in conjunction with other diagnostic evaluations, in adults and pediatric patients over one month old. Gilomas are the most common form of central nervous system cancer and make up roughly 80% of all malignant brain tumors, with around 24,000 new cases diagnosed in the United States each year.
Conventional MRIs have been the standard of care for imaging these tumors, though they have their flaws. There are limitations that come with MRIs including a lack of biological specificity and an inability to distinguish actual tumor progression from benign tissue changes caused by radiation or surgery.
“For years, neuro-oncologists have faced the agonizing challenge of looking at an MRI and trying to determine if a brain tumor is growing back, or if the abnormality is simply inflammation and scarring from treatment,” said Dr. Deric Park, Neuro-Oncologist at Hackensack Meridian John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center. “Being the first health network in the Northeast to offer Pixclara means our patients now have access to the most advanced diagnostic clarity available for gliomas. It allows our multidisciplinary teams to make faster, more confident, and highly personalized treatment decisions without unnecessary delays.”
When Pixclara is administered intravenously, it targets specific membrane transport proteins (LAT1 and LAT2) to cross the blood-brain barrier and bind to tumor cells. Once it is bound, it emits energy that can be detected by a PET scanner. Clinical data has shown that combining Pixclara PET imaging with conventional MRI yields a 41% higher diagnosis accuracy than an MRI on its own.
The FDA’s recent approval of Pixclara has helped bring this groundbreaking technology to the United States, including at the health network’s ambulatory center at Hackensack Meridian Hoboken Imaging Services. With Hackensack Meridian Health now being able to administer Pixclara, it will help bring its benefits to both physicians and patients.