Mapping estimates of vascular permeability with a clinical indocyanine green fluorescence imaging system in experimental pancreatic adenocarcinoma tumors

SIGNIFICANCE: Pancreatic cancer tumors are known to be avascular, but their neovascular capillaries are still chaotic leaky vessels. Capillary permeability could have significant value for therapy assessment, and its quantification might be possible with macroscopic imaging of indocyanine green (ICG) kinetics in tissue. AIM: The capacity of using standard fluorescence surgical systems for ICG kinetic imaging as a probe for capillary leakage was evaluated using a clinical surgical fluorescence imaging system, as interpreted through vascular permeability modeling. APPROACH: Xenograft pancreatic adenocarcinoma models were imaged in mice during bolus injection of ICG to capture the kinetics of uptake. Image analysis included ratiometric data, normalization, and match to theoretical modeling. Kinetic data were converted into the extraction fraction of the capillary leakage. RESULTS: Pancreatic tumors were usually less fluorescent than the surrounding healthy tissues, but still the rate of tumor perfusion could be assessed to quantify capillary extraction. Model simulations showed that flow kinetics stabilized after about 1 min beyond the initial bolus injection and that the relative extraction fraction model estimates matched the experimental data of normalized uptake within the tissue. The kinetics in the time period of 1 to 2 min post-injection provided optimal differential data between AsPC1 and BxPC3 tumors, although high individual variation exists between tumors. CONCLUSIONS: ICG kinetic imaging during the initial leakage phase was diagnostic for quantitative vascular permeability within pancreatic tumors. Methods for autogain correction and normalized model-based interpretation allowed for quantification of extraction fraction and difference identification between tumor types in early timepoints.