ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief introduction to biology of cancer and metastasis and the accompanied cellular changes that can be exploited by targeted radionuclide therapies such as targeting of specific overexpressed receptors present only on cancer cells. Targeting mechanisms and possible targeting vectors are also summarized to give an overview of basic radionuclide therapy principles and approaches. As mentioned, the effectiveness of targeted radionuclide therapy is highly dependent on the expression profile of the target receptor. To ensure selective tumor targeting, the target receptor should be overexpressed on cancerous cells with minimal to no expression on healthy, normal cells. To this effect, the most promising molecular targets to date are discussed with example radiopharmaceuticals currently in clinical andpreclinical use. The chapter concludes with clinical examples of specific targeting methods employed such as brachytherapy, lipiodols, MIBG and elemental uptake of radioisotopes in the targeted cell, again supplemented by clinical examples.
