Development of inorganic nanoparticles for radionuclide therapy in cancer treatment

Abstract

Radionuclide therapy is an important cancer treatment modality that makes use of the local irradiation from radionuclides at the tumor sites. Radiopharmaceuticals are normally composed of three components: radionuclide, carrier and tumor targeting agent. In terms of the radionuclide carriers, macrocyclic and acyclic chelators are commonly used to complex the radiometallic ions. Besides conventional chelators, inorganic nanoparticles have also been proposed as radionuclide carriers in previous research but have been mainly focused on the diagnostic applications. In this thesis, various types of inorganic nanoparticles were radiolabeled with therapeutic radionuclides including α, β- and Auger electron (AE) emitters. The behavior of some radionuclides on the host materials during internal conversion was studied. Moreover, the cell uptake and tumor killing efficiency of the AE emitters radiolabeled nanoparticles were assessed in vitro to evaluate their potential for cancer treatment.