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Review
. 2019 Jul 29;12(3):114.
doi: 10.3390/ph12030114.

Lutathera®: The First FDA- and EMA-Approved Radiopharmaceutical for Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy

Ute Hennrich  1 , Klaus Kopka  2   3
Affiliations
Review

Lutathera®: The First FDA- and EMA-Approved Radiopharmaceutical for Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy

Ute Hennrich et al. Pharmaceuticals (Basel). .

Abstract

As the first radiopharmaceutical for Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT), Lutathera® was approved by the EMA in 2017 and the FDA in 2018 for the treatment of somatostatin receptor (SSTR) positive gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Using the concept of PRRT, Lutathera® combines the radionuclide 177Lu with the somatostatin analogue DOTA-TATE, thus delivering ionizing radiation specifically to tumor cells expressing somatostatin receptors. As a result, DNA single- and double-strand breaks are provoked, in case of double-strand breaks leading to cell death of the tumor and its SSTR-positive lesions.

Keywords: Lutathera®, [177Lu]Lu-DOTA-TATE; neuroendocrine tumors (NET); peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT); somatostatin receptor (SSTR); thera(g)nostics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Structure of [177Lu]Lu-DOTA-TATE (Lutathera®). Simplified writing of complexation [18].
Figure 2
Figure 2
Simplified overview on the mechanism of action of [177Lu]Lu-DOTA-TATE.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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