The Rise Of Radiotherapeutics: Brief History And Best Practices For Clinical Trials

By Rupa Doshi

Radiation therapy was first used to treat cancer more than a century ago, and nearly half of all cancer patients still receive it at some point during their treatment.¹ Historically, most radiation therapy was given by delivering ionizing beams of radiation from outside the body, but with advances in the field of nuclear medicine,  radionuclides are increasingly being used to deliver localized radiation to cancer cells. In this blog, we explore a brief history of radiopharmaceuticals and discuss best practices for planning and executing clinical trials utilizing these novel drugs to treat cancer.