Targeted detection of cancer cells during biopsy allows real-time diagnosis of pulmonary nodules.

BACKGROUND: The diagnostic yield of biopsies of solitary pulmonary nodules (SPNs) is low, particularly in sub-solid lesions. We developed a method (NIR-nCLE) to achieve cellular level cancer detection during biopsy by integrating (i) near-infrared (NIR) imaging using a cancer-targeted tracer (pafolacianine), and (ii) a flexible NIR confocal laser endomicroscopy (CLE) system that can fit within a biopsy needle. Our goal was to assess the diagnostic accuracy of NIR-nCLE ex vivo in SPNs. METHODS: Twenty patients with SPNs were preoperatively infused with pafolacianine. Following resection, specimens were inspected to identify the lesion of interest. NIR-nCLE imaging followed by tissue biopsy was performed within the lesion and in normal lung tissue. All imaging sequences (n = 115) were scored by 5 blinded raters on the presence of fluorescent cancer cells and compared to diagnoses by a thoracic pathologist. RESULTS: Most lesions (n = 15, 71%) were adenocarcinoma-spectrum malignancies, including 7 ground glass opacities (33%). Mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) by NIR-nCLE for tumor biopsy was 20.6 arbitrary units (A.U.) and mean MFI for normal lung was 6.4 A.U. (p < 0.001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis yielded a high area under the curve for MFI (AUC = 0.951). Blinded raters scored the NIR-nCLE sequences on the presence of fluorescent cancer cells with sensitivity and specificity of 98% and 97%, respectively. Overall diagnostic accuracy was 97%. The inter-observer agreement of the five raters was excellent (κ = 0.95). CONCLUSIONS: NIR-nCLE allows sensitive and specific detection of cancer cells in SPNs. This technology has far-reaching implications for diagnostic needle biopsies and intraprocedural decision-making.

Targeted detection of cancer at the cellular level during biopsy by near-infrared confocal laser endomicroscopy.

Suspicious nodules detected by radiography are often investigated by biopsy, but the diagnostic yield of biopsies of small nodules is poor. Here we report a method-NIR-nCLE-to detect cancer at the cellular level in real-time during biopsy. This technology integrates a cancer-targeted near-infrared (NIR) tracer with a needle-based confocal laser endomicroscopy (nCLE) system modified to detect NIR signal. We develop and test NIR-nCLE in preclinical models of pulmonary nodule biopsy including human specimens. We find that the technology has the resolution to identify a single cancer cell among normal fibroblast cells when co-cultured at a ratio of 1:1000, and can detect cancer cells in human tumors less than 2 cm in diameter. The NIR-nCLE technology rapidly delivers images that permit accurate discrimination between tumor and normal tissue by non-experts. This proof-of-concept study analyzes pulmonary nodules as a test case, but the results may be generalizable to other malignancies.