Nuclear medicine Archives

Tag: Nuclear medicine

A branch of medicine that uses small amounts of radioactive substances to make pictures of areas inside the body and to treat disease. In cancer, the radioactive substance may be used with a special machine (such as a PET scanner) to find the cancer, to see how far it has spread, or to see how well a treatment is working. Radioactive substances may also be used to treat certain types of cancer, such as neuroendocrine tumours, thyroid cancer, prostate cancer and lymphoma.

26 Oct 2024

By Ronny Allan

10 Comments

PRRT – The Sequel? Alpha-emitter PRRT for Neuroendocrine Tumours (NET)

Clinical Trials and Research212Pb-AR-RMX, Ac-225, Advanced neuroendocrine cancer, Carcinoid tumour, Incurable cancer, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, Neuroendocrine, Neuroendocrine cancer, Nuclear medicine, Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), PRRT, Radioimmunotherapy, Radionuclide, Somatostatin analogues, Targeted alpha-emitter therapy (TAT)

Updated and reviewed June 2026. Alpha‑emitter PRRT is emerging as the next major evolution of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy. Instead of using a beta‑emitting isotope such as 177Lu, these new approaches use alpha‑particle–emitting isotopes like 212Pb or 225Ac. The goal is simple: deliver more powerful DNA‑damaging radiation directly into tumour cells while keeping the impact on surrounding tissues as low as possible. This is still experimental, but the science is compelling — and the early clinical signals are strong enough that alpha‑emitter PRRT is now considered one of the most important areas to watch in NET research. How alpha‑emitter PRRT…

18 Jan 2017

By Ronny Allan

5 Comments

Theranostics for Neuroendocrine Cancer – A Find and Destroy Mission

Awareness, Clinical Trials and Research, Living with Neuroendocrine Cancer, TreatmentAdvanced neuroendocrine cancer, Edotreotide, Ga68 PET/CT, Indium 111-pentetreotide, Lutathera, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, NETSPOT, NETTER-1, Neuroendocrine cancer, Neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC), Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Nuclear medicine, Octreoscan (Octreotide scan), Octreotide, Pancreatic NET (PanNET), Paraganglioma, Pentetreotide, Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), Pheochromocytoma, PRRT, Radionuclide, Satoreotide (Lutetium-177), SomaKit TOC

Theranostics is a joining of the words therapeutics and diagnostics. You may also see it conveyed as 'Theragnostics' and these terms are interchangeable. The basic aim of theranotistics is to find and then destroy the 'bad guys'. With Neuroendocrine Cancer, finding the tumours (the bad guys) can often be a challenge - they can be small and/or difficult to find - they are sometimes expert at camouflage. Moreover, once found, they can then be difficult to treat (destroy), as they can often prove resistant to conventional cancer drugs and many are inoperable due to sheer quantity, spread and positioning. When…

02 Nov 2016

By Ronny Allan

9 Comments

Neuroendocrine Cancer – Exciting Times Ahead!

Inspiration, Survivorship, TreatmentAfinitor, Chemotherapy, Diarrhea, Everolimus, Functional tumour, Gallium 68 (Ga68), Lanreotide, Lung NETs, Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer, mTOR inhibitor, NETSPOT, Neuroendocrine, Non-functional tumour, Nuclear medicine, Octreotide, Octreotide scan, Oncolytic virus, Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), PRCRT, PRRT, RADIANT, Radiolabelled somatostatin analogue, Serotonin, Somatostatin analogues, Somatostatin receptors (SSTR), Telotristat ethyl (Xermelo)

In the last 12-24 months, there seems to have been announcement after announcement of new and/or upgraded/enhanced diagnostics and treatment types for Neuroendocrine Cancer. Scans, radionuclide therapies, combination therapies, somatostatin analogues, biological therapies, etc. Some of the announcements are just expansions of existing therapies having been approved in new (but significant) regions. Compared to some other cancers, even those which hit the headlines often, we appear to be doing not too badly. However, the pressure needs to stay on, all patients need access to the best diagnostics and treatments for them; and at the requisite time. There's even more in the pipeline and I'm hoping…

07 Sep 2015

By Ronny Allan

11 Comments

PRRT and the NHS England Cancer Drugs Fund (now archived information)

TreatmentAfinitor, DOTA-TATE, Everolimus, Gallium 68 (Ga68), Lu-177, Lutathera, Neuroendocrine cancer, Neuroendocrine tumour (NET), Nuclear medicine, Octreotide, Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), Pheochromocytoma, PRRT, Radiolabelled somatostatin analogue, Radionuclide, Yttrium 90 (Y90)

Please note this post is now historic information - PRRT (Lutathera) was eventually approved for use in UK. See the following post for the very latest on PRRT worldwide - CLICK HERE I was extremely disappointed to learn of the decision to remove PRRT (Lutetium or Yttrium) from the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF). You can read the detail of the decision here: CDF Statement. PRRT has regularly been described by NET specialists and patients as the "magic bullet" due to its potential to shrink or kill tumours. This is the second Neuroendocrine Cancer treatment to be withdrawn this year, after…