Facile preparation of 177Lu-microspheres for hepatocellular carcinoma radioisotope therapy

As one of the most common cancers in the world, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has become a major threat to human health. Radioembolization is a first-line option for the treatment of HCC, especially when other conventional treatments fail or there exist some relative contraindications. Herein, we developed a facile and efficient method for preparing ¹⁷⁷Lu-microspheres potentially useful for precise radioembolization therapy of HCC. The radiolabeling efficiency of ¹⁷⁷Lu-microspheres was as high as 96.8% ± 0.5%, and the radiolabeling process did not alter the morphology of the mother microspheres. The SPECT/CT studies enabled by the unique emissions of ¹⁷⁷Lu suggested that almost no ¹⁷⁷Lu ion loaded by the microspheres was released over more than 32 d in vivo, which led to remarkable inhibition effect on the growth of HepG2 tumors subcutaneously transplanted in mice. The current approach may thus offer promising ¹⁷⁷Lu-microspheres for clinical radioembolization of HCC.