64Copper labelled nanoparticles for PET Imaging: a review of the recent literature.

Aim Nuclear medicine plays a crucial role for personalized therapy, mainly in oncology. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy present some disadvantages and research is shifting toward nanotechnology with significant improvements in therapy and diagnosis of several cancers. Indeed, nanoparticles can be tagged with different radioisotopes for SPECT and PET imaging and for therapy. This review describes the current state of the art of 64Copper-labelled nanoparticles for PET imaging of cancer. Methods We performed a systematic analysis of literature using the terms "64CuCl2", "64Cu", "Copper" AND "nanoparticle" AND "PET" in online databases: i.e. PubMed/MEDLINE and Scopus. The search was limited to English papers and original articles. We excluded articles not in English language, abstracts, case reports, review articles and meeting presentations. Results Amongst the116 articles retrieved, 88 were excluded because reviews, or not in English, or only in vitro studies or meeting presentations. We considered only 28 original papers. The most used nanoparticles are liposomes and they are mainly used in breast cancer although other animal models of cancer have been also investigated. Conclusions The results showed that nanoparticles can be considered a promising radiopharmaceutical for PET imaging of different type of cancer.