Other types of internal radiation therapy

For some cancers, you may be referred to a nuclear medicine specialist to have another type of internal radiation therapy.

Learn more about:

• Radionuclide therapy
• SIRT

Radionuclide therapy

Also known as radioisotope therapy, this involves radioactive material being taken by mouth as a capsule or liquid, or given by injection. The material spreads throughout the body, but particularly targets cancer cells. It delivers high doses of radiation to kill cancer cells with minimal damage to normal tissues.

Different radionuclides are used to treat different cancers. The most common radionuclide therapy is radioactive iodine, which is taken as a capsule and used to treat certain types of thyroid cancer. For more on this, see Thyroid cancer or call 13 11 20.

Other radionuclide therapies include:

• peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT), which uses a small amount of a radioactive substance that has been combined with a cell-targeting protein (peptide). PRRT is given by an injection to treat tumours (NETs) of the bowel, pancreas and lung
• injection of a radioactive material combined with prostate specific membrane antigen to treat some advanced prostate cancers
• injection of a radioactive material with a substance called metaiodobenzylguanidine to treat some types of NETs or neuroblastoma
• injection with a small amount of bone-seeking radioactive liquid to target cancer that has spread to the bone.
• injection of radioactive antibodies to treat lymphoma.

SIRT 

This method uses tiny radioactive beads to deliver high doses of radiation to the liver. The beads are injected into a thin tube called a catheter, which is inserted into the main artery that supplies blood to the liver.

Radiation from the beads damages the cancer cells and their blood supply. This means the cancers can’t get the nutrients they need and they shrink. For more on this, see Liver cancer.

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