Radiolabeled chemotherapeutics as a novel strategy for targeted cancer therapy: current insights and future perspectives

The use of radiolabeled chemotherapeutics is an exciting prospect in the management of cancer, as lethal cytotoxic radiation dose can be delivered to the cancerous lesions by using minimum amount of chemotherapy drugs, thereby without exerting significant chemotoxic dose burden to the patients, and thus overcoming one of the serious impediments of chemotherapeutic interventions. There is a huge array of natural and synthetic chemotherapeutic drugs, which find regular use in cancer therapy. Radiolabeling some of these drugs with suitable therapeutic radionuclides have been achieved successfully and these radiolabeled agents have shown considerable promise in the pre-clinical studies. This article archives the efforts directed towards developing radiolabeled chemotherapeutics for therapeutic intervention of cancers and results obtained till date with such agents.

Automated summary

The use of radiolabeled chemotherapeutics shows promising potential in cancer treatment by delivering lethal radiation dose to cancerous lesions with minimum chemotherapy drugs, thus overcoming a significant obstacle in chemotherapeutic interventions. Successful radiolabeling of certain chemotherapeutic drugs with suitable radionuclides has shown considerable promise in pre-clinical studies.