Theranostic Vectors to Treat Cancer with Radiometals

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The burden of cancer can be reduced by early detection and early treatment management of patients; in this regard nuclearimaging and therapy have made great contributions to clinical medicine particularly for diagnosis and have potential for muchgreater importance in therapy should the radioactivity be properly harnessed. Nuclear medicine requires injecting very smallamounts of radioactivity attached to designer molecules that are transported specifically to the area physicians need toimage or treat, resulting in low radiation doses for imaging, and minimal harm to surrounding healthy tissue for therapy.Depending on the radioactive decay emissions of a specific isotope, it can be used for diagnostic imaging, or delivery ofradiation specifically to the tumour to destroy cancer cells. Unfortunately, the current technology needed to safely andproperly incorporate these radioactive elements into a pharmaceutical in limited. The project objective is to develop noveltechnologies to harness radioactive metals for therapy and imaging of a variety of cancers. Our multidisciplinary team ofexperts from UBC, TRIUMF and the BC Cancer Agency, along with our industrial partner Nordion, will optimize theproduction of these radioisotopes, and enable technologies to securely attach the radioactive metal to a variety of"biomolecules" (molecules that are targeted specifically to specific proteins in cancer progression). By varying theradiometal, these radiopharmaceuticals can be used for both imaging and subsequent non-invasive targeted treatment ofcancers. The developments made through this project will positively affect Canadians suffering with cancer. Personal healthimplications are significant with radioactivity as dose can be personalized easily by adjusting both the affinity of the bindinginteraction to the tumour and the radiation load of the final construct.