Development of 177lu-Based Agents for Targeted Radiotherapy: Laboratory to Clinics

In the last one and half decade, Lu has emerged as one of the most important and useful radionuclides for the development of a wide variety of targeted radiotherapy agents owing to its suitable nuclear decay characteristics, comparatively longer half-life and production feasibility using medium flux research reactors. Radiopharmaceuticals Division (RPhD), BARC has done pioneering work in the field of production of clinical-grade Lu and development of Lu-based agents for targeted radiotherapy and palliative care. The efforts undertaken by the author and his colleagues in the past 15 years have paved the way towards the development of several potential radiopharmaceuticals and freeze-dried kits. A few of these radiotherapeutic agents and lyophilized kits are being regularly used in various hospitals of our country for the treatment of cancer patients. This has not only ensured the availability of some state-of-the-art radiopharmaceuticals in our country, but also helped to make such radiotherapeutic modalities affordable to the cancer patients.