Hypoxia occurs due to inadequate oxygen supply and greatly influences solid tumor development and resistance to treatment. During hypoxia, the lack of oxygen disturbs the intracellular redox balance, which becomes reductive. [64Cu]-CuATSM is a lipophilic radiopharmaceutical compound with the property of being retained in cells with high reducing potential so it can carry out a mapping of hypoxic cells using PET. PET/MRI can play a critical role in the diagnosis, treatment orientation, and subsequent management of brain tumors as it can provide complementary information regarding tumor metabolic properties, particularly when performed simultaneously with advanced MRI techniques.
In recent years, cellular hypoxia and the associated intra-cellular metabolic modifications have become a large field of study in various pathologies such as neurology, cardiology, and oncology. In vivo access to the cellular hypoxic status by direct physical methods appears to be complex and invasive. The recent rise in nuclear medicine approaches based on positron-emitting radiopharmaceuticals provides access to this information. [64Cu]-CuATSM is a lipophilic copper complex that penetrates normoxic and hypoxic cells. Normoxic cells efflux this radiopharmaceutical while hypoxic cells accumulate.
This nuclear metabolic imaging approach therefore enables non-invasive mapping of hypoxic cells.
In the specific field of oncology, intratumorally hypoxia represents a major poor independent prognostic factor and is recognized as a massive obstacle to the efficacy of conventional therapies. Hypoxia is highly heterogeneous in space and time and in a clinical environment, the tissue partial pressure in O2 (ptO2) cannot, however, be mapped. Therefore, noninvasive mapping of tumor hypoxia represents a great opportunity for diagnosis but also for treatment improvement and adaptation.
In this webinar we will show examples on how hypoxia mapping can be further used to adapt loco-regional treatment such as external radiation-therapy.
Thursday, 25 April 2024, 16:00 CET
During the webinar, we will first discuss the currently available methods used to detect hypoxia using both MRI and PET imaging and in particular, the [64Cu]-CuATSM metabolism and the use of this radiopharmaceutical in different preclinical and clinical pathologic models. We will provide examples of hypoxia imaging in brain tumor situations (high grade gliomas, brain metastases) in rodents and in the clinic.
This webinar will be of interest to multiple profiles in the community of biomedical research specially those applying medical imaging techniques in their work. Clinicians, researchers, PhD students and postdocs as well laboratory technicians will find this webinar relevant
Dr Samuel Valable
Research Director
ISTCT Lab at Cyceron Research Center
Dr. Mickaël Bourgeois
Radiopharmacist –Associate Professor
Nantes University Hospital – Nuclear Medicine Department
ARRONAX Cyclotron – Radiopharmacy Unit