Patient Therapy Resources

About Radiopharmaceutical Therapy

Radiopharmaceutical therapy (also called targeted radionuclide therapy, molecular radiotherapy, or RPT) involves a radioactive drug compound that seeks and destroys cancer cells.

Most radiopharmaceuticals consist of a small amount of radioactive material — called a radionuclide — combined with a cell-targeting molecule. When injected into the patient’s bloodstream, the radiopharmaceutical travels to and delivers radiation directly to disease sites. Because it is highly selective in its ability to damage cancerous cells while limiting radiation exposure to healthy tissue, molecular therapy is known as a targeted therapy.

Patient Fact Sheets

SNMMI has developed fact sheets and guidelines to help you better understand your nuclear medicine treatment.

Guidelines for Patients Receiving I-131 Radioiodine Treatment web version | PDF
- Spanish version: Instrucciones Para Los Pacientes que van a Recibir Tratamiento con Yodo Radioactivo (I-131) | PDF
Radiopharmaceutical Therapy and Prostate Cancer web version | PDF
What Is Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT)? web version | PDF
What is Radioimmunotherapy?
MIBG Imaging and Radionuclide Therapy

Therapy Procedures

Nuclear medicine radiopharmaceutical therapy offers safe, effective, targeted treatments for several types of disease.
Learn more about these radiopharmaceutical therapy procedures:

Prostate Cancer treatment with ¹⁷⁷Lutetium PSMA-617 (Pluvicto)
Liver disease treatment with radioembolization (TheraSphere, SIR-Sphere)
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment with radioimmunotherapy (Zevalin)
Neuroendocrine tumor treatment with PRRT (Lutathera)
Neuroendocrine tumor treatment with I-131 MIBG (Azedra)
Prostate cancer bone treatment (Metastron, Quadramet, Xofigo)
Thyroid cancer and hyperthyroidism treatment (I-131)

Therapy Infographic

Learn more about cancer treatment using radiopharmaceutical therapy.

Click the image to enlarge.

Learn More About Neuroendocrine Tumor (NET) Therapies


Current Imaging and Therapy of NETs with Nuclear Medicine Erik Mittra, MD, PhD (16:45)		PRRT Patient Experience Linda "Lindy" Gardner, BSN, RN (20:12)		Future of PRRT and Molecular Imaging for NETs: What is on the Horizon? Richard Baum, MD, PhD (23:10)		PRRT: Now, Later, Never? George Fisher, MD, PhD (9:12)

Learn More About Thyroid Cancer Therapies


What to Expect: Radioiodine Therapy		The Role of Radioiodine in Thyroid Cancer Treatment (4:48)		I-131 Therapy for Thyroid Cancer (19:28)		Thyroid Imaging and Therapy