Special Issue "Past, Present and Future Radiotracer Techniques: Radiopharmaceuticals in Cancer Theranostics"

Dear Colleagues, 

Following its tradition of publishing Special Issues on selected and highly interesting topics, the journal “Pharmaceuticals” is planning to launch a new Special Issue on the topic “Past, Present and Future Radiotracer Techniques: Radiopharmaceuticals in Cancer Theranostics”. 

More than five years ago, [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-DOTA-TATE (Lutathera^®) was approved by both the EMA and the FDA as the first radiopharmaceutical for Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) of neuroendocrine tumors (NET) while joining its diagnostic counter-partner [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-DOTA-TOC (SomaKit TOC^®, TOCscan^®). A further success story was represented by the approval of [¹⁷⁷Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 (Pluvicto^®) to various diagnostic counter-partners like [⁶⁸Ga]Ga-PSMA-11 (Locametz^®/Illuccix^®) or [¹⁸F]DCFPyL (PYLARIFY^®)  for the treatment of prostate cancer. Both radiotherapeutics are prime examples for the successful application of targeted radionuclide therapy (TRNT) in modern cancer management. 

However, the aforementioned theranostic pairs can only supply a limited number of cancer patients and, therefore, the development of new radiotracers and/or radiopharmaceuticals for various targets and cancer types is further ongoing. Such a developmental chain usually takes a couple of years and involves a variety of different steps from synthesis of the labeling precursor and reference compounds, optimization of radiolabeling and pre-clinical evaluations to the development of automated GMP compliant synthesis and quality control, first-in-human studies and various clinical trials. All these essential steps can be covered in the Special Issue. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to: 

• Development and pre-clinical evaluation of diagnostic tracers and radiotherapeutic pharmaceuticals·       
• Establishment and validation of GMP compliant synthesis and quality control·       
• Translation into clinics: first-in-human studies, clinical trials

Please refer also to the list of keywords.

We cordially invite you to submit research as well as review articles to this Special Issue and look forward to reading your articles.

Dr. Ute Hennrich
Dr. Martina Benešová-Schäfer
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Pharmaceuticals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• diagnostic radiotracers
• therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals
• theranostics
• radiolabeling techniques
• GMP compliance
• automated synthesis and quality control
• pre-clinical studies
• translation into clinics and first-in-human studies
• clinical trials
• regulatory approval