C30 (30 MeV) cyclotron at the Saclay, France IBA manufacturing plant for the production of therapeutic radionuclides such as 131I. (Courtesy IBA)
Presently marketed radiopharmaceutical products are used for thyroid cancer therapy as already mentioned, but a few others have been developed and are available for the treatment of neuroblastoma or liver cancer. There are some new drugs under development by small radiopharmaceutical companies for the treatment of diseases such as pancreas cancer, neuro-endocrine tumors, malignant pheochromocytoma, neuroblastoma, melanoma, Hodgkin lymphoma. We hope that most of them will reach the market soon.
Unfortunately, there are lots of projects on hold, e.g.for acute myeloid leukemia or colon cancer therapy. Other approaches without development include melanoma therapy, head and neck cancer therapy, brain glioblastoma or brain metastases treatments, hepatocarcinoma, kidney cancer, … All of them are local investments and suffer of funds shortage.
