GU Cancers 2026 | Phase I/II study of CA IX imaging and therapy in renal cell carcinoma

Yeah, so at ASCO GU this year in San Francisco, I’m presenting on some emerging tools for imaging in renal cell carcinoma, more specifically clear cell renal carcinoma. And we have some nuclear medicine radioactive tracers that target a specific receptor on the cell surface of renal cell carcinoma called CA9. And many will be familiar with the PSMA PET and PSMA therapy story in prostate cancer. And I think we’re on the cusp of a similar sort of revolution in renal cell carcinoma. So this is not a new target, it’s been around for actually many decades, and there’s been evolving technology, starting with some radioactive antibodies with SPECT tracers for imaging, and the technology’s improved to PET tracers. There is one called Zircon, which is an already labeled antibody, labeled Zirconium-89 for PET CT imaging, which has a very strong evidence base and is looking for regulatory approval at the moment. And then more recently, there are some peptides radiolabeled to gallium-68, a little bit like gallium-PSMA, but gallium-CA9 peptide that have come on the market that we’ve been researching at Peter Mac as part of a phase one trial. And these have extraordinary sensitivity and specificity for imaging clear cell renal carcinoma, still early days. But last year we published on the first in human trial and in three patients, we saw, you know, significant increase in accuracy compared to CT or bone scanning. And now there are several companies commercializing radiolabeled peptides for imaging and the early data looks extremely promising. So I think we’re going to see a rapid change in imaging and a shift away from conventional imaging, CT, bone scan, MRI towards CA9 PET imaging, but a lot of work to do to really generate the evidence base to get to regulatory approval so that these are available for our patients.

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