Why “Radiopharmaceutical” Should be Part of your Healthcare Vocabulary

By JAY T. RIPTON Not to sound too alarmist, but the radiopharmaceutical industry is on the verge of an explosion. But don’t worry; it’s not the type of explosion one often associates with nuclear materials… I love those movies too! It’s the beginning of a new wave of innovation for the diagnosis and treatment of certain cancers and other diseases. This new radiopharmaceutical boom quite literally has the life sciences industry in a nuclear arms race of sorts, as companies like Y-mAbs, Novartis and others are pushing through clinical trials for the next blockbuster for the treatment and detection of hard-to-treat diseases like medulloblastoma and metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. But all this excitement has many wondering, “what are radiopharmaceuticals anyway?”    Radiopharmaceuticals are simply a group of pharmaceutical drugs containing radioactive isotopes. They are being used primarily for the treatment and detection of certain types of cancers, but they are also being developed for cardiac disease as well. And what makes radiopharmaceuticals so unique is that they can be targeted to extremely precise areas in the human body. Although gaining ground with more precision today, this type of therapy actually began in the 1940s with I-131 – which has become an important agent for the treatment of benign and malignant thyroid disease. The development of radiolabeled antibodies began in the 1970s, and Radium-223 dic...
Source: The Health Care Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Medical Practice jay t ripton nuclear medicine radiation oncology radiopharmaceuticals Source Type: blogs