Cytotoxic and Antiproliferative Effects of [64Cu]CuCl2 in Tumor Cells for Radiometabolic Therapy

Peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) is a relatively common condition in the advanced stages of many cancers, where malignant tumor cells spread from the organ of origin to the peritoneum. The impact of PC is global, affecting approximately 25,000 individuals in Italy and 1.4 million worldwide every year, with mostly negative outcomes. The aim of this study is to identify a treatment strategy focused on increasing the life expectancy of patients with PC, overcoming the challenge associated with the marked genetic instability of tumor cells, which is incompatible with the receptor-targeted and antigenic therapies currently proposed. The radionuclide copper-64 was employed in the form of [64Cu]CuCl2 to achieve this objective. It has been shown in recent studies that copper, in its ionic form Cu2+, can accumulate at significantly higher levels in tumor cells than in healthy ones, which makes its cytotoxic effect highly specific. This effect can be achieved by exploiting the nuclear decay characteristics of the radionuclide copper-64