Victor Deflon, a researcher at CEPID CancerThera, presented at Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear (CTN) of Instituto Superior Técnico the multidisciplinary approach that accelerates the development of new radiopharmaceuticals for cancer diagnosis and treatment.
On October 29th, researchers, students, and professionals in the field of radiopharmaceutical sciences and nuclear medicine gathered in the auditorium of Campus Tecnológico e Nuclear in Loures to attend another seminar of C²TN – Centro de Ciências e Tecnologias Nucleares Academy, part of the Thematic Line “Radiopharmaceutical Sciences and Health Physics”. On stage, Victor Deflon, one of the most influential voices in theranostic research in Brazil, presented his work entitled ‘”From the Laboratory to the Clinic: the Multi-Area Mission of CEPID CancerThera in the Development of Theranostics’, highlighting the path that transforms laboratory discoveries into clinical therapies.
Victor Deflon holds a PhD from University of Tübingen and is a professor at University of São Paulo. He is a member of CEPID CancerThera, a centre funded by Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, recognised for its strong multidisciplinary collaboration between chemists, biologists, pharmacists, physicists and nuclear physicians.
“Our mission is to develop radiopharmaceuticals that integrate diagnosis and therapy, following a theranostic approach based on collaboration between different scientific areas”, explained Victor Deflon.
As an approach that accelerates clinical innovation, the researcher explained that theranostics combines diagnosis and therapy using pairs of radiopharmaceuticals that share the same biological target.
‘When we already know the biodistribution of a diagnostic agent, we can move forward to therapeutic applications with greater safety and speed,’ said the researcher.
Cooperation between different scientific fields is one of the pillars of CancerThera. ‘The continuous exchange of knowledge between chemists, biologists, pharmacists and nuclear medicine specialists optimises planning and reduces inefficiencies at all stages of development,’ emphasised Victor Deflon.
Aware of the challenges in producing new radiopharmaceuticals, from the shortage of specialised professionals to the high costs of clinical trials and the complexity of regulatory processes, Victor Deflon highlighted, among the most recent advances, the development of new chelating agents and bifunctional ligands, designed to stabilise radionuclides and enable effective binding to specific biomolecules.
As for the most promising radionuclides in the Brazilian context, the researcher mentioned gallium-67 and gallium-68 for diagnosis and lutetium-177 for therapy. The limited availability of other theranostic pairs, such as technetium-99m and rhenium-186/188, represents an additional challenge.
Safety is central to theranostic research. The researcher emphasised the crucial role of radiation protection, given the diversity of radioisotopes used in diagnosis and therapy, and of personalised dosimetry, which ensures that each patient receives the optimal dose of radiation to optimise treatment efficacy.
Victor Deflon’s presence at C²TN has enabled new opportunities for cooperation between Instituto Superior Técnico and CancerThera to be explored. According to the researcher, particularly relevant synergies were identified ‘in the development of new bifunctional chelators and in the preclinical evaluation of radiopharmaceuticals with high tumour specificity’, highlighting the potential of this collaboration to advance joint and innovative research projects.
The researcher also expressed his gratitude to C²TN, highlighting the institution’s role in training Brazilian students: ‘Técnico’s support has been fundamental in training our researchers through doctoral and postdoctoral internships’.
Looking ahead to the coming years, Deflon believes that the theranostic approach will continue to transform the landscape of oncology in terms of cancer diagnosis and treatment, making them more accurate, faster and personalised for each patient. In this context, artificial intelligence is expected to play an increasingly important role in selecting candidates for new radiopharmaceuticals, speeding up processes and increasing research efficiency. Nevertheless, the expert warns of structural challenges, such as long development cycles and limitations in the production of radioisotopes, which require significant planning and resources.
At the conclusion of the seminar, Victor Deflon left a message of optimism, emphasising the impact that theranostic research can have on patients’ lives, stating that ‘each new radiopharmaceutical developed brings us closer to more effective therapies capable of providing significant improvements in patients’ quality of life’.