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Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT)
Sample Scan
Get Technical! Read the Journal Article 62.5 year old patient with metastatic GEP NET before PRRT (A) and three months after PRRT (B). Maximum-intensity-projection PET images (coronal views) are shown on left; fused and unfused CT images are shown on right. The arrow indicates the selected lesion. |
Radiotherapies using peptide-receptor targeting radionuclides function in much the same way as other personalized therapies by pinpointing a particular physiological function that is overactive in tumor cells.
Radiopeptides are analogs of natural hormones called somatostatins. Synthetic somatostatins like the man-made octreotide bind to somatostatin receptors in tumors and particularly neuroendocrine tumors of the bowel, stomach, lung, pancreas and other organs of the neuroendocrine system.
PRRT combines a therapeutic dose of a radioactive source, such as Yttrium-90, Indium-111 and lutetium 177 and octreotide to kill different kinds of tumors depending on their stage, structure and depth.