Cancer Imaging with Radiolabeled Monoclonal Antibodies

Noninvasive imaging technique using monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) is a rapidly evolving field, which has entered a new era of development. Recent advancements give rise to a variety of opportunities in the management of various cancers, where the radiolabeled antibodies may be particularly useful in immunospecific phenotypic imaging. While radiolabeled antibodies have been used for 30 years to diagnose and treat cancer, only a few have reached the level of routine clinical use. However, alternative radionuclides, with more appropriate physical properties, now offer new perspectives in immuno-specific phenotype tumor positron-emission tomography (PET) imaging. Both the pretargeting approaches and newly introduced antibody analogs have considerably improved the performances of tumor immunotargeting and renewed the interest in these strategies for both imaging and therapeutic purposes through the provision of companion diagnostics and theranostics to make personalized medicine a reality. In the field of cancer theranostics, we believe that radioimmunoconjugate compounds are likely to play a large part in near future.