Radioligand Therapy and its Potential Challenges in the Cancer Treatments

Over the last few decades, there has been constant innovation taking place related to cancer treatments. Traditional ways such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy have been joined by several other ways such as immunotherapy and targeted therapies.

The key factors pushing the demand for targeted therapy are its capabilities that help the healthcare experts to stop specific proteins inside the cancer cells helping in their growth.

Immunotherapy and targeted therapies are the two most effective approaches used by experts for cancer treatment. However, in the last few years, there has been a continuous rise in other approaches to cancer treatment, such as radioligand therapy.

What is radioligand therapy?

Radioligand therapy, also known as radiopharmaceuticals, refers to a therapy that strongly binds with the cancer tumor (also called vehicles having high tumor relations). This therapy is used for transporting specific radiation doses directly inside the tumors and their metastases, leaving the healthy tissues untouched.

The molecule choice which transports the radiation directly inside the tumor is decided by the binding power or its relationship with the tumor’s target systems, such as receptors or antigens.

An ideal radioligand for therapeutic objectives should be:

• Acting only inside the malignant tumors cells
• Reaching all the malignant tumors cells wherever they are located
• Leaving healthy organs and tissues unharmed while delivering maximum radiation doses to the tumor
• Eliminating malignant tumor cells with greater effectiveness

The radiation carried by the radionuclides therapy helps in killing the cancer cells by hurting their DNA and resulting in the shrinking of the tumors.

Every radiopharmaceutical is made to travel to different parts of the human body. Once it reaches the desired destination, it releases the radioactive agents to kill the presence of tumor cells.

As per the research to date, radiopharmaceutical therapy can be used to target the following cancers:

• Thyroid cancer
• Brain cancer
• Lymphoma
• Cancer spreading inside the bones

Industry Insight of Radioligand Therapy Market

Radioligand therapy is continuously witnessing rapid growth over the last few decades. The current radioligand therapy market is dominated by the manufacturers such as Johnson & Johnson Services, Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG, Telix Pharmaceuticals, Clovis Oncology Inc., RadioMedix, and Curium Pharma.

As per the recent study by BIS Research, the global radioligand therapy market is expected to grow from $9,754.9 million in 2020 to $16,658.4 million by 2031, with a CAGR of 4.67% during the forecast period of 2021–2031.

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The key factors pushing the growth of the market are the rising majority of strategic and cancer initiatives and increasing clinical research activities.

As per the region, North America is expected to dominate the global radioligand therapy market. It is supposed to be valued at $16,658.4 million in 2031. Meanwhile, Asia-Pacific is supposed to have the highest CAGR of 5.02%.

Potential Barriers to Radioligand Therapy in Cancer

Since radioligand therapy is still in the developing stage, the following challenges need to be overcome to make it a favored approach for cancer treatment:

• Low Understanding and Awareness

Many oncologists and other healthcare experts engaged in the treatments related to cancer may not have a proper understanding of radioligand therapy.

Moreover, patients and medical experts may also get worried because of the negative prejudgements around the usage of a radioactive substance.

• Limited Professional Trainers, Workspace, and Trainers

Not every hospital has the same techniques for performing the delivery of radioligand therapies. Generally, a few healthcare experts in each hospital are trained for this treatment, restricting it to a lesser number of experts present in the centers.

However, educating every member of the cancer team about using radioligand therapy is mandatory for effective treatments. There is a high requirement for few educational initiatives, especially for the cancer experts to take benefit of such new procedures.

• Unclear Care Models

Radioligand therapy needs proper planning with exact processes and workflows. New strategies around radioligand therapy may be disruptive to existing cancer care ways, which is a hindrance in itself.

Greater harmonization of treatment protocols and guidelines also poses a big challenge in radioligand therapy, causing troubles in practice as this new method needs both models and guidelines of care to be updated with the current scientific advances.

Conclusion

Radioligand therapy has some promising capabilities that can allow healthcare experts to diagnose cancers and track radioactivity inside the body after the delivery of the drugs. This therapy will not only help in treating cancers but will also help in scanning the presence of cancer in the early stage.

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