Phd ceremony G. Carlucci: Strategies for gastrin releasing peptide receptor targeted imaging in prostate cancer

Prostate cancer (PCa) is most commonly diagnosed in men over the age of 50, but the genetic history of their family is already an indication of a possible predisposition. When diagnosed at an early stage, the 5-year survival rate of PCa is almost 100%. Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon computed tomography (SPECT) with high sensitivity, specificity and resolution may help to investigating the staging and restaging of prostate cancer and obtaining molecular tumour information. Gastrin releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) may be a valid target for nuclear imaging of PCa. GRPR is highly expressed in several human cancer cell lines and could be used as a potential target for cancer detection. The aim of this thesis was to develop novel bombesin tracers to target Gastrin Releasing Peptide Receptor (GRPR), which is over-expressed in Prostate Cancer (PCa). Relatively easy to make, high quality probes could be widely used for prostate cancer detection and follow up, thus rendering more invasive techniques (like trans rectal ultrasound and PSA blood tests) or imaging techniques with varying sensitivity and specificity less important. Different bombesin peptides have been radio-labeled with different SPECT and PET radionuclides and evaluated in vitro and in vivo. These novel probes showed good targeting abilities and were successfully tested in animal models. For clinical translation of the probes studied in this dissertation additional studies should be conducted.