Lu-177 - A Noble Tracer: Future of Personalized Radionuclide Therapy

Narvesh Kumar, Rani Kunti R Singh DNB, Deepanksha Dutta, Subhash Chandra Kheruka

Department of Nuclear Medicine, SGPGIMS, India
Department of Radiodiagnosis, Vivekananda Polyclinic and Institute of Medical Sciences, India

^*Correspondance to: Subhash Chandra Kheruka 

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Abstract:

Radionuclide therapy using radiopharmaceuticals is in existence for over sixty years. Iodine-131 remains the work-horse for the treatment of thyroid cancer due its efficacy and ease of administration. Lutetium-177 (Lu-177) is one of the most promising targeted radionuclides therapy agents. 177Lu (half-life of 6.67 days) decays into the stable Hafnium-177 (177Hf). It emits beta radiation (maximum energy of 498 keV) and gamma rays of 208 and 113 keV. Owing to its beta as well as gamma ray emission, 177Lu is a near-to-ideal ‘theranostic’ radionuclide. In India the potential of 177Lu in designing agents for targeted radiotherapy was initially realized in 2000, in the Radiopharmaceuticals Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Now clinical grade 177LuCl3 is commercially supplied by BARC, to nuclear medicine centers all over India. At our institute, we have also experienced good results of PRRT with 177 Lu- DOTA-NOC in well-differentiated inoperable and metastatic neuroendocrine tumors. Dazed by the above results, we are pushing the efforts for the utilization of 177Lu –PSMA therapy in patients with metastatic prostate cancer.

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Cite the Article:

Kumar N, Rani Kunti R Singh DNB, Dutta D, Kheruka SC. Lu-177 - A Noble Tracer: Future of Personalized Radionuclide Therapy. Clin Oncol. 2017; 2: 1249.