Journal of Nuclear Medicine

A research team led by Osaka University developed a theranostics approach to both diagnose and treat certain pancreatic cancer cases. They radioactively labeled a monoclonal antibody targeting glypican-1, which is highly expressed in pancreatic cancer, then administered it to disease model mice. One label, 89Zr, showed high uptake in tumors, which would allow early detection of pancreatic cancer with PET scans. Another label, 211At, was used with alpha therapy to significantly slow tumor growth.