The rebirth of radioligand therapy – a novel approach to treating cancer

AusHealth’s Dr Justin Coombs attended the South Australian Radioligand Therapy Roundtable, co-hosted by Novartis, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia.

Here he explains why radioligand therapy is having a renaissance in the treatment of cancer …

What is radioligand therapy?

It’s a novel approach to finding and treating cancer by delivering radiation directly to cancer cells – it’s basically targeted radiotherapy.

How does it work?

In radioligand therapy you attach a therapeutic radioactive isotope to a ‘ligand’ – typically an antibody – which is specific to a disease. That antibody is now armed with a radioactive isotope to damage or kill the cells the antibody sticks to. So, the antibody acts like a homing beacon, delivering a payload of isotope to the cells you want to kill, while limiting the impact on healthy cells.

What’s a real-world example?

There’s a great example where patients receive an antibody that targets a protein called PSMA, which is associated with prostate cancer. The radioligand is injected into the patient; the antibody floats around the patient, finds the cancer and sticks to it, delivering that radioactivity just to the cancer.

Is this a new therapy?

Targeted radiotherapy is quite old technology, but it’s having a renaissance thanks to new radioligands. It’s being driven largely by companies like Telix Pharmaceuticals Limited and Novartis, who have been quite successful with getting their therapies to market.

How is AusHealth involved in advancing this therapy?

We’ve got a project with Australian biopharmaceutical company Telix, where we’re trialling radioligands to treat a range of cancers. As a medical research charity, we started funding research into a promising antibody in 2011 – and have since helped translate that research into a new ‘theranostic’ lead called Apomab. It’s already in human clinical trials and because we’ve partnered with Telix on the development of Apomab, the commercial benefits of this home-grown therapy will stay in the country.