Development of novel radiopharmaceuticals for targeted cancer therapy
Bone metastases are a frequent complication of breast and prostate cancer, usually associated with a high degree of morbidity and mortality. There are not many options for treating bone metastases. A targeted radionuclide therapy, based on systemic application of radiopharmaceuticals, may prolong survival and may even lead to cure. Accumulation of the radiopharmaceuticals emitting alpha and/or beta particles in cancer cells results in cell death whereas toxicity to non-targeted healthy tissue is limited. The aim of this project is to develop new radiopharmaceuticals for metastatic cancer which is not curable with the current available treatments. The best candidates from in vitro studies will be further tested in mice with cancer metastasis in bones in order to select the most promising candidates for the clinical trials. Toxicity, pharmacokinetics, biodistribution and therapeutic efficacy of new pharmaceuticals will be tested in mice.
We need to study these processes in a suitable in vivo system to design and implement better therapeutic strategies of bone metastases. No alternative biological systems can be found to obtain such information. We are requesting 300 Foxn1 nu mice to accomplish the proposed research objectives. The number of mice was determined based on preliminary experiments and by a Power and Sample Size program. We are going to carry out our experiments causing minimal pain and distress to the animals by monitoring daily animals, selection of experimental endpoints that precede the onset of clinical illness, by early recognition of humane endpoints, and by judicious use of anaesthetics and analgesics.
We need to study these processes in a suitable in vivo system to design and implement better therapeutic strategies of bone metastases. No alternative biological systems can be found to obtain such information. We are requesting 300 Foxn1 nu mice to accomplish the proposed research objectives. The number of mice was determined based on preliminary experiments and by a Power and Sample Size program. We are going to carry out our experiments causing minimal pain and distress to the animals by monitoring daily animals, selection of experimental endpoints that precede the onset of clinical illness, by early recognition of humane endpoints, and by judicious use of anaesthetics and analgesics.