Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences said on the 27th that Director Im Il-han of the Nuclear Medicine Department at Korea Cancer Center Hospital comprehensively analyzed the latest overseas clinical status and outcomes of actinium alpha-emitter targeted therapy, which is emerging as a new alternative for treating refractory cancers, and presented directions for domestic development.
Alpha-emitter targeted therapy is drawing attention for its excellent therapeutic effects and low side effects in hard-to-treat cancers that do not respond to existing treatments, such as neuroendocrine tumors and castration-resistant prostate cancer. In 2023, Korea Cancer Center Hospital successfully conducted the nation's first clinical trial of actinium (Ac-225) targeted therapy for patients with neuroendocrine tumors.
Currently overseas, alpha-emitter targeted therapy has mainly entered the clinical trial stage for prostate cancer, and treatment outcomes in cohorts numbering in the hundreds have been reported, showing improved survival and extended progression-free survival.
A review of a total of 28 clinical studies of alpha-emitter targeted therapy for prostate cancer found particularly notable results in a large-scale multinational clinical study conducted at seven institutions in four countries—Australia, India, Germany, and South Africa. This study enrolled 488 patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer from 2016, when alpha-emitter targeted therapy was first introduced, to 2023.
As for treatment results, patients recorded a mean overall survival of 15.5 months, and the period during which the cancer did not progress (progression-free survival) was 7.9 months, confirming a significant antitumor effect. For clinical studies involving patients with neuroendocrine tumors, a total of 18 studies were reviewed, and in one conducted in India in 2022 that administered actinium targeted therapy to 91 patients, treatment effects were confirmed in 80% of patients.
Director Im Il-han, while projecting expanded application of alpha emitters to early-stage cancer treatment and combination therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors based on this analysis, also cited expansion of radionuclide production, daughter nuclide redistribution issues, and securing long-term toxicity data as priority tasks.
Director Im Il-han said, "We will do our best to expand clinical application for patients with various refractory cancers going forward to provide more patients with new treatment opportunities and contribute to improving survival rates and quality of life."
This trend analysis was published as a review article in the latest issue of Annals of Nuclear Medicine.
References
Annals of Nuclear Medicine (2025), DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12149-025-02117-5