Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is a devastatingly malignant tumor with a high mortality. However, current strategies to treat PDAC generally have low efficacy and high side-effects, therefore, effective treatment against PDAC remains an urgent need. RESULTS: We report a semiconducting polymer nano-radiopharmaceutical with intrinsic photothermal capability and labeling with therapeutic radioisotope (177)Lu ((177)Lu-SPN-GIP) for combined radio- and photothermal therapy of pancreatic tumor. (177)Lu-SPN-GIP endowed good stability at physiological conditions, high cell uptake, and long retention time in tumor site. By virtue of combined radiotherapy (RT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), (177)Lu-SPN-GIP exhibited enhanced therapeutic capability to kill cancer cells and xenograft tumor in living mice compared with RT or PTT alone. More importantly, (177)Lu-SPN-GIP could suppress the growth of the tumor stem cells and reverse epithelial mesenchymal transition (EMT), which may greatly reduce the occurrence of metastasis. CONCLUSION: Such strategy we developed could improve therapeutic outcomes over traditional RT as it is able to ablate tumor with relatively lower doses of radiopharmaceuticals to reduce its side effects.