Radioligand therapy in sympathetic-adrenal-medullary axis tumors: state of art and perspectives

The approval in 2017 by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and in 2018 by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of radioligand therapy (RLT) led to its wide application in therapeutic management of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs). However, the indications are currently limited to certain specific histotypes belonging to the broader NEN’s family, mainly advanced well-differentiated gastro-entero-pancreatic NENs. As a consequence, several other tumors of the NEN spectrum that can potentially benefit, due to their biological characteristics, from RLT are still ineligible and can be considered “RLT-orphans”. Among those, the subgroup of NENs originating from the sympathetic-adrenal-medullary (SAM) axis can be listed. This paper discusses the state of art and perspectives of the theragnostic applications in pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas, considering both the traditional theragnostic model – with radiolabelled metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) – and the innovative one with radiolabeled somatostatin analogs (SSAs), that will hopefully become available for these patients in the near future.