Gansu's First α‑Radionuclide Cancer Therapy Launches – New Milestone for Wuwei Cancer Hospital
Gansu's First α‑Radionuclide Cancer Therapy Launches – New Milestone for Wuwei Cancer Hospital
From Marie Curie's discovery of radium — opening a century of exploration in nuclear medicine — to today's precision radionuclide therapies becoming core weapons against advanced tumors, nuclear medicine continues to evolve, bringing renewed hope to patients with challenging malignancies.
On June 29, Gansu Wuwei Cancer Hospital, building on the core technical foundation of its Department of Nuclear Medicine (established in 1983) and collaborating with Urology in an MDT‑led multidisciplinary team, successfully performed radium [²²³Ra] radionuclide therapy on a patient with advanced prostate cancer and extensive bone metastases. As a cutting‑edge international alpha‑radionuclide targeted therapy, this achievement fills a gap in alpha‑emitting radionuclide therapy in Gansu Province and the broader region. It marks a new milestone for our hospital in precision diagnosis and treatment of bone metastases from prostate cancer, officially ushering in a new era of alpha‑radionuclide precision therapy and opening a new therapeutic pathway for patients with advanced prostate cancer and bone metastases in Northwest China.
The patient treated was an 89‑year‑old male with confirmed prostate cancer and multiple bone metastases, who had long suffered from severe bone pain. Despite receiving novel endocrine therapy, his condition had progressed. Physically frail and unable to tolerate chemotherapy, conventional treatment options no longer offered benefit.
The MDT team, integrating molecular imaging findings from the Department of Nuclear Medicine and individualized radiation dose calculations, determined a personalized radium [²²³Ra] treatment plan. The entire procedure was carried out by specialized nuclear medicine staff under strict radiation safety monitoring, and was completed simply through intravenous infusion.
Radium [²²³Ra] is an innovative alpha‑emitting radionuclide therapy agent. Once administered, it exhibits high bone‑seeking affinity, accumulating at active sites of bone metastasis and emitting high‑energy alpha particles. Its radiation range is extremely short — only penetrating a few cell layers — enabling precise destruction of metastatic lesions while maximizing protection of bone marrow and surrounding healthy tissues, with notable safety advantages.
Prostate cancer at an advanced stage is highly prone to bone metastases, which often cause intractable bone pain, pathological fractures, spinal cord compression, and other severe complications, significantly impairing patients' quality of life and shortening survival. Radium [²²³Ra] is an important therapeutic option in such cases. It mimics the body's calcium metabolism, actively binding to hydroxyapatite in bone and accumulating at sites of bone metastasis. The high‑energy alpha particles it emits have a range of approximately 100 microns, allowing them to act locally on tumor cells with minimal impact on normal tissues and bone marrow, making it a clinically valuable treatment with strong targeting and well‑controlled toxicity.
The Department of Nuclear Medicine at Gansu Wuwei Cancer Hospital was established in 1983. It is the first nuclear medicine department in Wuwei and the one with the most comprehensive range of radionuclide therapies in western Gansu. The hospital is equipped with a GE Discovery 710 Super‑Iterative PET‑CT — the fourth PET/CT in Gansu Province and the only one in a prefecture‑level city hospital — along with a GE Hawkeye 4 dual‑probe SPECT, forming a robust molecular imaging diagnostic system.
Leveraging its advanced equipment and in‑house radiopharmaceutical preparation platform, the department has maturely implemented a wide range of radionuclide diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, including ¹³¹I therapy for hyperthyroidism, ⁹⁰Sr‑⁹⁰Y radionuclide applicator therapy for keloids and hemangiomas, ⁸⁹Sr therapy for bone metastases, ¹²⁵I seed implantation therapy, ¹³¹I therapy for differentiated thyroid cancer, and ⁹⁰Y resin microsphere interventional therapy for liver cancer — benefiting over 10,000 patients to date. The hospital successfully performed the first domestically produced Yttrium‑90 microsphere interventional procedure for liver cancer in the Gansu‑Qinghai‑Ningxia‑Xinjiang region, ushering in a new era of precision radionuclide intervention for liver cancer in the region. The recent introduction of ²²³Ra therapy brings new hope to patients with advanced bone metastases; ¹⁷⁷Lu therapy will offer another major benefit for patients with metastatic prostate cancer. In the future, the successive implementation of new targeted radionuclide therapies — such as ²²⁵Ac‑based targeted therapy and ²¹¹At astatine‑targeted radiotherapy — will elevate radionuclide therapy in Gansu Province to a nationally advanced level.
The clinical launch of radium [²²³Ra] represents a key milestone in the hospital's efforts to build a comprehensive nuclear medicine service chain. Going forward, the hospital will continue to build on the Department of Nuclear Medicine's years of technical expertise, introducing more cutting‑edge targeted radionuclide technologies and routinely implementing multidisciplinary collaborative care models. With standardized and precise nuclear medicine services, the hospital aims to serve as a leading nuclear medicine center in Northwest China, addressing regional gaps in advanced cancer care, protecting the health of the people, and contributing to the high‑quality development of cancer prevention and treatment across Gansu Province and the wider Northwest region.
Writers: Guo Yishan, Duan Shengyu
First Reviewer: Yang Yang
Second Reviewer: Guo Yishan
Third Reviewer: Cai Qinghua
Individual differences exist objectively
Specific plans vary from person to person
Gansu Wuwei Cancer Hospital (Wuwei Institute of Medical Sciences)
（甘）医广【2025】第11-14-387号
