ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces several molecular radiotherapy (MRT) techniques in more detail and outlines the practical challenges around internal dosimetry, treatment, radiobiology and radiation protection for patients undergoing this form of radiotherapy. MRT should be managed by a multidisciplinary team involving nuclear medicine physicians, oncologists, radiologists and medical physicists. Successful delivery and retention within the body rely on the radionuclide being attached to a pharmaceutical or in a chemical format itself that targets the cells of interest. For MRT, the amount of radioactivity to be administered to guarantee effective therapy needs to be determined prior to treatment. Radiation dose calculations in MRT depend on quantification of the spatial uptake of activity via planar and/or tomographic imaging methods. A treatment planning system is a computer-based system running dedicated software to help automate the dose calculation and analysis process.
