Recent Advances and Strategies in the Development of Therapeutic Radiopharmaceuticals

Therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals can be employed in the treatment of various tumor diseases, and their global market share is likely to witness an explosive growth in the recent decade. On the other hand, a significant issue in China’s nuclear medicine field is the severe homogeneity of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals targets recently, coupled with a deficiency in original targeting agents for newly developed radiopharmaceuticals. Clinical research is a crucial step in the development of new drugs, and its research progress centrally reflects the development trends and innovation directions of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals. Therefore, based on the main modules of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, this paper focuses on introducing the recent progress of clinical research on new drugs, mainly including the drug action mechanism and targeting strategies, the clinical application of therapeutic radioisotopes, the clinical evaluation of disease targets and targeted ligands. Simultaneously, this paper summarizes the application difficulties and coping strategies of therapeutic radionuclides, induces the evolution trend of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, and looks forward to the development opportunities of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals in China. It is hoped that the above content can offer meaningful references for practitioners and related professionals engaged in the research and development of therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals.