Lu-edtmp: a New Radiopharmaceutical for Palliation of Bone Pain in Cancer Patients with Skeletal Metastases

Skeletal metastases or secondary cancerous lesions in bone, are common in patients suffering from breast, lung and prostate cancer, in the advanced stage of the disease. These metastatic lesions in skeleton, often lead to excruciating pain and other related symptoms such as: lack of mobility, neurological deficits, depression, anxiety, anger, fear of death etc., which adversely affect the quality of life. Though conventional treatment modalities such as administration of analgesics and external beam radiotherapy are prevalent practices, their disadvantages are manifold, owing to multiple side effects. Radionuclide therapy employing radiopharmaceuticals labeled with radionuclides, and which emit β/conversion electrons is an effective option for bone pain palliation and could provide significant improvement in the quality of life of the patients. The major challenge in developing effective agents for palliative treatment of bone pain arising from skeletal metastases, is to ensure the delivery of adequate doses of ionizing radiation, at the site of the skeletal lesions, with minimum radiation-induced bone marrow suppression. Lu: A promising radionuclide for bone pain palliation