Radioligand Therapies Provide Life-Enhancing Treatments for Patients with Advanced Prostate Cancer
External bean radiotherapies (EBRT) use an external radioactive beam to treat cancer.
However, with this approach:
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The radiation beam not only kills cancerous tissue but also damages nearby healthy tissues.
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The radiation beam is not capable of locating and targeting cancerous cells that have moved to other parts of the patient’s body; thereby allowing cancer cells to continue growing.
Radioligand therapies (RLT) are a novel class of therapies, which address these issues. RLT locate and bind to cancerous cells not only at the site of cancer origin, but also at sites where the cancer has moved. RLT clinical trials have shown significant improvement in survival and quality of life (QofL) for people with aggressive and advanced cancers. RLT work by delivering radiation to cancer cells in a targeted and precise method, thus allowing for the identification and/or killing of cancer cells and limiting exposure of radiation to healthy cells (Figure 1). Clinical trials have reported that the targeted RLT treatments are well tolerated with manageable side effects.
