The presence of hypoxic tumor cells is known to be an important cause of resistance to radiation therapy. The ability to detect and quantify hypoxia in individual human tumors could affect the selection of therapy, such as the use of the specific antihypoxia treatment regimens.
Few techniques exist to measure hypoxia in human tumors.
We hypothesize that the amount of trapping of 60 Cu-ATSM within tumors will be inversely correlated with tumor response to radiation therapy. Successful completion of this research study will provide the data needed to design a larger study to assess hypoxia and its impact on treatment of malignant neoplasms.