Nuclear medicine: targeted alpha therapy study of brain tumours receives Marie Curie Award 2016

A study on targeted alpha therapy of brain tumours led by the Medical University of Warsaw in cooperation with the JRC won the 2016 Marie Curie Award of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM). The prestigious award recognises the best paper out of 2201 contributions submitted to the 2016 Annual Meeting of the EANM.

The paper describes the results of a first-in-human study of targeted alpha therapy for secondary glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) tumour. Secondary GBM progresses from initially low-grade brain tumours and manifest mainly in younger patients. The median overall survival time in untreated patients with secondary GBM is 7.8 months, and 27 months in patients after standard therapy including surgery and radiotherapy. In the award winning study seven patients received a novel form of locoregional therapy using a radiopharmaceutical labelled with the alpha emitter bismuth-213 (see image). The treatment was well tolerated and median survival time increased to 47 months. These results indicate that targeted alpha therapy may evolve as promising novel option for therapy of secondary GBM.

Further information: Nuclear medicine: targeted alpha therapy study of brain tumours receives Marie Curie Award 2016