Targeted Alpha Therapy and Nanocarrier Approach

The rates of cancer incidence and mortality are increasing day by day. Although several conventional methods including surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy (RT) exist for cancer treatment, they are insufficient in the eradication of all tumor tissues and have some side-effects such as narrow therapeutic index and serious side-effects to healthy tissues. Moreover, it may probably recur in time due to the survival and spreading of cancerous cells or any possible metastases. Targeted radionuclide therapy is a promising alternative. alpha particles are ideal for localized cell killing because of their high linear energy transfer and short ranges. However, upon emission of alpha particles, the daughter nuclides induce a recoil energy to lead decoupling from any chemical bond that may accumulate in normal tissues. Targeted alpha therapy can also be performed by targeted delivery systems apart from mAb, mAb fragments, peptides, and small molecules for selective tumor therapy. Targeted drug delivery systems have been developed to overcome the limitations of alpha therapy. Moreover, drug delivery systems are one of the most searched applications in cancer imaging and/or treatment due to their targeting ability to tumor or biocompatibility properties. The aim of this article is to summarize tumor therapy applications, targeted alpha RT approach, and to review the role of drug delivery systems in the delivery of alpha particles for cancer therapy and some instances of targeted alpha-emitting drug delivery systems from the literature.