Radionuclide Therapy for Neuroendocrine Tumours

About Radionuclide Therapy

Radionuclide therapy uses radioactive materials called radioisotopes that travel through the body.  The radioisotope is collected by tumour cells, and the radiation from the radioisotope kills those cells.  If a radioisotope is combined with a substance that helps focus the treatment on the tumour cells, other parts of the body will have less damage from the radiation.

A specialized kind of radionuclide therapy sometimes used to treat neuroendocrine tumours is called “peptide receptor radionuclide therapy,” or PRRT.  PRRT combines the radioisotope – usually lutetium-177 (Lu-177) – with a somatostatin analogue, and the somatostatin analogue attaches to the neuroendocrine tumour cells.

This type of radionuclide therapy does not work for all neuroendocrine tumours. A patient may need specialized imaging (like Ga-68 DOTATATE PET scans) to find out whether the treatment could be helpful.

Talk to your healthcare team to see if radionuclide therapy is right for you.