Theranostics: Cancer imaging and therapy using injectable radionuclide-labeled ligands

Abstract

Introduction: the foundation stone of radioligand theranostics (RT)During part of World War 2 and in the immediate years thereafter, Dr Saul Hertz at Massachusetts General Hospital conducted his trailblazing research on the medical applications of artificial radioactivity, the process of making non-radioactive atoms radioactive by means of a particle accelerator. 1 Collaborating with several physicists, Hertz used a cyclotron to generate radioactive 130 I and 131 I and subsequently utilized these nascent isotopes to diagnose and treat patients with thyroid carcinoma. In so doing, Hertz inaugurated the era of nuclear medicine and targeted precision cancer therapy and created the first Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved (in 1951) radiopharmaceutical for the treatment of thyroid cancer. Targeting the sodium-iodine symporter in patients with thyroid carcinoma remains a pillar of nuclear medicine to this day. 2 Now, more than 80 years later, radiopharmaceutical development has taken giant leaps forward with far-reaching therapeutic implications for many other cancer

Theranostic Advances in Breast Cancer in Nuclear Medicine

“…Nowadays, this exclusive integration of diagnosis and therapy are common. The most recent progress in this precedent is the administration of those radiotheranostic agents which target somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) in neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) antigens in BC and the prostate specific membrane antigen (PSMA) in prostate cancer (PC) [ 30 , 34 , 35 ]. The two prevalent ligands for NET are DOTA-Phe1-Tyr3-octreotide (DOTA-TOC) and DOTA-DPhe1,Tyr3-octreotate (DOTA-TATE) widely used worldwide [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ].…”