[Radionuclide therapy for cancer--what's new?]

Radionuclide therapy is radiation therapy, the effect of which is based on radiation damage in cancer cells. The most common radionuclide therapy for cancer is radioiodine therapy for thyroid cancer. Two new forms of treatment have recently been initiated in Finland: 177lutetium octreotate therapy for neuroendocrine tumors, pheochromocytoma and paraganglioma as well as radioembolization (selective internal radiation therapy, SIRT) with 90yttrium-coated resin beads against liver metastases. Still in experimental use, 223radium chloride is a drug prolonging survival in prostate cancer that has metastasized to bone. The treatments require special knowledge and collaboration between several units.