Leveraging Radiopharmaceutical Programmatic Collaboration for Management of Pretherapy and On-treatment Urinary...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Nuclear Medicine
• Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Background:

• Parenteral radiopharmaceuticals used in anticancer therapy are often renally excreted.
• Urinary incontinence presents management challenges for radiopharmaceutical administration.
• Existing guidelines for managing incontinence during radiopharmaceutical therapy are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a decision-making guideline for administering therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to patients with urinary incontinence.
• To outline strategies for patient screening, urine collection, and care coordination.
• To establish clinical practice guidelines for managing incontinence-related adverse events.

Main Methods:

• Multidisciplinary collaboration among radiation medicine, nuclear medicine/molecular imaging, and radiotheranostics program leaders, and radiation safety officers.
• Discussion of challenges and opportunities in patient screening and urine collection strategies based on incontinence grade.
• Operationalization of procedures using Lutetium-177 (177Lu)-based radiopharmaceutical therapies as clinical examples.

Main Results:

• Key management issues identified include cutaneous radiation injury, redness, infection, and pain.
• Clinical practice guidelines were developed for recognizing and managing incontinence-related adverse events.
• Common adverse events associated with urinary incontinence were documented.

Conclusions:

• A practical guideline for the safe administration of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to patients with urinary incontinence has been developed.
• The guideline addresses critical management issues and adverse event protocols.
• Further investigation and evaluation across all radiopharmaceutical therapy agents are warranted.