Abstract
Objective: In recent years, thanks to advances in targeted radionuclide therapy, significant advances have been made in the early diagnosis and treatment of diseases. With the emergence of the concept of "theranostic", which combines diagnosis and treatment methods, Lutetium-177 (Lu-177) has gained an important place in targeted therapy and has become a leading compound in this field. In this review, it is aimed to explain the basic information about radiopharmaceuticals, targeted therapy, theranostics and Lu-177, to present 177Lu-labeled molecular carriers and 177Lu-labeled radiopharmaceuticals and to review the studies on these subjects.
Result and Discussion: 177Lu is a theranostic agent with a half-life of 6.7 days, which can be used in diagnosis and treatment in nuclear medicine thanks to its γ and β rays. Its high specific activity and easy access to these activity levels as well as its relatively long half-life can be considered as the main factors of interest in the clinical use of this radionuclide. The clinical utility of 177Lu, a preferred radioisotope for targeted radionuclide therapy, in the treatment of neuroendocrine tumors, prostate cancer, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, adenocarcinoma, and liver cancer, and in alleviating bone pain, was investigated, and as a result, 177Lu was found to show great potential in cancer and pain therapy. With these areas of use, we believe that Lu-177 will have an important place in the field of nuclear medicine in the future.