Safety and Feasibility of Intraoperative Visualization With Cytalux in Children

Pulmonary metastasectomy, or surgery to remove cancer which has spread to the lungs, plays a key role in the treatment of children with metastatic solid tumors. Fluorescence-guided surgery (FGS) has been shown to be a promising technique to highlight cancer cells and enable real-time surgical guidance (Stummer 2006, Hernot 2019, Goldstein 2021). Current techniques for fluorescence-guided surgery rely on indocyanine green (ICG), a non-specific fluorescent molecular agent which tends to accumulate in cancer cells because of increased angiogenesis and decreased lymphatic clearance. Molecular agents targeted to tumor-specific receptors offer the hope of increased sensitivity and specificity for detecting even very small metastatic nodules, and thus enhancing surgical clearance of disease. Many of the tumors which metastasize to the lung are known to express the folate receptor and may therefore benefit from utilizing the tumor imaging agent CYTALUX (pafolacianine). CYTALUX (Pafolacianine) as a diagnostic tool during cancer resection has already been investigated in adults (approved NDA 214907), and no age-specific differences are expected in the pediatric population. Findings from the ELUCIDATE trial in adults demonstrated that intraoperative molecular imaging with CYTALUX (pafolacianine) improves surgical outcomes by identifying occult tumors and close surgical margins and it therefore gained FDA approval for adults with cancer in the lung (both primary and metastatic) as an adjunct with near infrared (NIR) imaging for detection of disease during surgery. We anticipate that this agent will have similar safety and efficacy in children and to similarly demonstrate applicable for all types of metastatic tumors. This is a pilot study in pediatric subjects aged 6-17 with biopsy confirmed cancer and imaging findings suspicious for pulmonary metastatic disease scheduled to undergo pulmonary metastasectomy via an open or minimally invasive approach. In the proposed study, subjects and their parents or guardians will give informed consent prior to commencement of any study procedures. Subjects will be dosed with 0.025 mg/kg CYTALUX (pafolacianine) injection intravenously from 4 hours to up to 24 hours prior to surgery. Subjects will be considered evaluable if they are exposed to study drug and/or NIR fluorescent light imaging. During surgery, all subjects will first undergo evaluation by normal surgical techniques (white light, palpation, and/or other localization techniques) and all suspicious nodules and lesions identified under standard surgical approach will be recorded as such. Following standard surgical assessment, subjects will undergo assessment with NIR fluorescent light imaging prior to and after resection.