Duke Health

A new generation of image-guided treatments uses radioactive material to target and destroy cancer cells with fewer side effects than standard cancer treatments. Radioligand therapies are approved to treat advanced prostate cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, thyroid cancer, and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and clinical trials are underway to expand this therapeutic approach to more cancer types.

Who is a candidate for radioligand therapies, and why are they so effective? In our ongoing Conversations in Cancer series, Diane Reidy-Lagunes, MD, a medical oncologist at Duke Health who specializes in neuroendocrine tumors, talks to Hannah McManus, MD, a medical oncologist who treats prostate cancer, about this “smart bomb” approach and the promises it holds for the future.

Learn more about PLUVICTO and other radioligand therapies.

Two decades after Patrick Schultea underwent treatment for prostate cancer, his prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels began to rise, signaling that the cancer had returned. Because tiny radioactive seeds had been implanted in his prostate at a local hospital to treat his first bout with cancer, Schultea needed a new approach. He found it at Duke Health. Today, he’s back to renovating his beach house and enjoying life with his family.

Billy Morning had always been a big guy, but around the time he turned 50, he knew it was time to do something about his weight. His father died after a heart attack when he was in his 60s, and Morning wanted to be around for his wife and his grandchildren. Just a few months after undergoing gastric sleeve surgery at Duke Raleigh Hospital, he’s lost more than 60 pounds. “I got so much energy now,” Morning said. “I can walk more. I'm not out of breath. I sleep a lot better. I can play with my grandkids. That’s the biggest thing."