Comparison of 18F-Fluoroazomycin-Arabinofuranoside and 64Cu-Diacetyl-Bis(N4-Methylthiosemicarbazone) in Preclinical Models of Cancer

Hypoxic regions are present in different types of cancer and are a negative prognostic factor for disease progression and response to therapy. (18)F-fluoroazomycin-arabinofuranoside ((18)F-FAZA) and (64)Cu-diacetyl-bis(N4-methylthiosemicarbazone) ((64)Cu-ATSM) have been widely used to visualize hypoxic regions in preclinical and clinical studies. Although both these radioligands have high signal-to-noise ratios, (64)Cu-ATSM may be suitable for use in in vivo imaging and as a radiotherapeutic agent. Despite encouraging results suggesting that it may have a role as a prognostic tracer, (64)Cu-ATSM was recently shown to display cell line-dependent kinetics of oxygen-dependent uptake. We set out to evaluate the kinetics of (64)Cu-ATSM distribution in different cancer models, using (18)F-FAZA as the gold standard.