Osseous metastases are a source of significant morbidity for patients with a variety of cancers.
Radiotherapy is well established as an effective means of palliating symptoms associated with such metastases. The role of external beam radiotherapy is limited where sites of metastases are numerous and widespread. Low LET radionuclides have been utilised to allow targeted delivery of radiotherapy to disparate sites of disease, with evidence of palliative benefit. More recently, the bone targeting, high LET radionuclide radium-223 has been shown to not only have a palliative effect but also a survival prolonging effect in metastatic, castration resistant prostate cancer with bone metastases. This article reviews the different radionuclide based approaches for targeting bone metastasis, with an emphasis on radium-223, and key elements of the underlying radiobiology of these which will impact their clinical effectiveness. Consideration is given to the remaining unknowns of both the basic radiobiological and applied clinical effects of radium-223, as targets for future research.
Written by:
Turner PG, O'Sullivan JM. Are you the author?
Clinical Research Fellow Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology Queen's University Belfast Belfast BT97AE.
Reference: Br J Radiol. 2015 Mar 26:20140752.
doi: 10.1259/bjr.20140752
PubMed Abstract
PMID: 25811095