Radioimmunoconjugates for treating cancer: recent advances and current opportunities

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Radioimmunoconjugates have been used for 30 years to diagnose and treat cancer. For many years, the use of these therapeutic tools has been limited to haematological disorders, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, given that they have only had a moderate effect on solid tumours.

Areas covered: Recently, several strategies have revived the potential therapeutic application for radioimmunoconjugates. In this review, the authors review the advances in immunological engineering to develop new tools like monoclonal antibodies and their derivatives. Then, the authors summarize the development of radionuclides, the use of recombinant antibodies, pretargeting approaches, and dose fractionation techniques, providing opportunities for both therapeutic and diagnostic applications.

Expert opinion: Radioimmunoconjugates used in nuclear medicine have entered a new era of development. These advances give rise to a variety of opportunities in the management of various cancers, where the radiolabelled antibodies may be particularly useful in immuno-specific phenotypic imaging e.g. companion diagnostics. Concerning therapeutic applications, radioimmunoconjugates have demonstrated their efficacy in the treatment of both haematological malignancies and solid tumours. Recent procedural developments are of great interest in optimising oncological targeted therapies. In the field of cancer theranostics, we believe that radioimmunoconjugated compounds are likely to play a large part in near future.

KEYWORDS:

• Nuclear medicine
• monoclonal antibodies
• cancer
• radioimmunotherapy
• immunoPET

Article highlights

• The recent progress in the field of radioimmunoconjugates is underpinned by advances in biotechnological engineering strategies and improved access to novel isotopes.

• The benefit to risk ratio of radioimmunoconjugates is well understood.

• Radioimmunoconjugates are powerful tools in diagnosis, patient follow-up and theranostic approaches in the field of oncology.

• Radioimmunotherapy, in combination with several other drugs, has proven efficacy in the treatment of various solid tumours.

• Radioimmunoconjugates may provide useful therapeutic options for targeted cancer therapies.

This box summarizes key points contained in the article.

Acknowledgments

This manuscript had language editing performed by A Chess from BrittHouse EUROPE.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. Writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript and funded by grants from the Investissements d’Avenir.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported by the French National Agency for Research called Investissements d’Avenir via grants Labex IRON n°ANR-11-LABX-0018-01 and Equipex Arronax plus n°ANR-11-EQPX-0004.