Radiopharmaceuticals for the Treatment of Chronic Cancer Pain.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Cancer-induced bone pain is a frequent, debilitating complication seen in metastatic cancers and often poorly controlled with conventional analgesics. Radiopharmaceutical therapy offers a targeted pain relief with beta emitters providing sustained analgesia and alpha emitters offering potent cytotoxicity and survival benefits.

RECENT FINDINGS: Emerging agents such as Lu-EDTMP show promising pain palliation with manageable toxicity. Radiopharmaceutical therapy enables systemic treatment of bone metastases and reduces opioid dependence while complementing local therapies. This review aims to summarize the mechanisms, clinical evidence, advantages, limitations, and future directions of radiopharmaceutical therapy in the management of cancer-induced bone pain.