Development of CD46 targeted theranostics for imaging and treatment of cancer

The development of novel molecular imaging and radionuclide treatments is changing the standard of care in patients with cancer. CD46 is an underexplored therapeutic target which is highly expressed in many cancers, in a lineage independent fashion. We have developed paired imaging and therapeutic agents, 89Zr-DFO-YS5, and 225Ac-DOTA-YS5, which are highly effective for detection and treatment of prostate cancer and multiple myeloma. These agents are highly effective in preclinical models and have strong promise for near-term clinical translation.

Robert Flavell, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Section of Molecular Imaging in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging at the University of California, San Francisco. He received his medical degree from Weill Cornell Medical College, and his PhD from the Rockefeller University as part of the Tri-Institutional MD PhD program. He completed his one-year internship at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Dr. Flavell completed a four-year diagnostic radiology residency at the University of California, San Francisco, where he also finished a Nuclear Medicine fellowship. In June 2016. he joined the faculty at UCSF as an Assistant Professor in Residence. Since 2019, he has been the Chief of the Division of Molecular Imaging and Therapeutics (formerly nuclear medicine), in the Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging. Dr. Flavell’s laboratory focuses on the development of new molecular imaging and therapeutic tools for better detection and treatment of prostate and other cancers.