Radiopharmaceuticals in Modern Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Nuclear medicine plays a role in oncology. It uses tracers (radiopharmaceuti-cals) to study physiological processes and treat diseases. The radiopharmaceuticals can be formed as radionuclides alone or radionuclides labeled with other molecules as a drug, a protein, or a peptide. The radiopharmaceutical is introduced into the body and accumulates in the target tissue of interest for therapy or imaging purposes. It offers to study cancer biology in vivo to optimize cancer therapy. Another advantage of radiopharmaceutical therapy is a tumor-targeting agent that deposits lethal radiation at tumor sites. This review outlines radiopharmaceuticals agents in current cancer therapy.