A radiant future: Improving targeted radionuclide therapy through modulation of DNA damage in the tumor

Project summary

Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is a revolutionary new treatment for patients with metastasized neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), however, at the moment fewer than 1% of these patients can actually be cured at this stage of disease. Adaptations of the therapy regimen are urgently needed, since administering a higher PRRT dose will lead to side effects in healthy tissues, leading to lower quality of life and increase of mortality. The overall aim is to develop a procedure -ready for translation to the clinic- for in vivo DNA repair inhibition that increases the effectivity of PRRT in NETs while minimizing deleterious side effects.

At the end of the project, preclinically tested combination regimens will be ready for evaluation and further development in the clinic. These regimens may also be translated to other tumors susceptible to targeted radionuclide therapy such as PSMA-positive metastasized prostate cancer, and will thereby extend and improve the lives of even more cancer sufferers.