Radiotheranostics are radiolabeled drugs that bring a radioactive payload to the cancer lesions but can also (simultaneously) be detected with nuclear imaging. Further development can only be made possible with investments in state of the art research facilities & clinics and by attracting a critical mass of top scientists in the field. Therefor the Brussels RadioTheranostics Platform or ‘BRTP’ has been established including a coordinated network of scientist and clinicians of IJ Bordet, UZ Brussel and ULB Erasme in the Brussels region as well as a common strategic plan for building and operating state of the art infrastructures.
 
Personalized medicine has become the core paradigm in modern oncology. Nuclear Medicine offers the unique opportunity of personalized targeted radiotherapy based on the “theranostics concept”: a same radiotracer targeting a specific molecular biomarker of the tumor is used for both imaging (when labeled with an isotope for PET or SPECT imaging) and molecular radiotherapy or MRT (when labeled with a beta- or alpha emitting isotope).
 
In Belgium, the Institut Jules Bordet (IJB) has been the major protagonist in the development and clinical introduction of radiotheranostics such as Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy (PRRT) for neuroendocrine tumors, and molecular radiotherapy in lymphoma.
 
VUB is internationally at the forefront of innovative vectors based on single domain fragments (sdAbs) for the purpose of radionuclide diagnosis and therapy.
 
This Brussels RadioTheranostics Platform will complete the existing nuclear medicine and research infrastructures and bring nuclear therapeutic applications at top-level.