Objectives

• This article provides recommendations for standardizing the reporting of preclinical radiobiological studies in targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT).
• It emphasizes the need for consistent nomenclature, accurate use of "activity" and "dose," and detailed reporting of radiopharmaceutical properties, experimental models, controls, and biological outcomes.
• The authors recommend using "TRT" as a keyword for literature searches.

Methodology

• The article focuses on methodological standardization rather than specific engineering techniques. It recommends using established in vitro (2D and 3D cell cultures) and in vivo (animal) models.
• It stresses the importance of including appropriate controls (untreated, vehicle, non-specific radiolabeled, cold pharmaceutical, target-specific blocking agent, cells with no target expression, varying activities/concentrations, and optional external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) controls).
• It advocates for the use of the clonogenic assay as the gold-standard in vitro assay, alongside other assays like metabolic activity assays, limited dilution assay, cell cycle analysis, and assays for cell death, ROS production, organelle effects, DNA damage, and chromosomal damage.

Results

• The article does not present new experimental data but rather provides recommendations based on existing literature and a survey. The survey, with 300 respondents across >15 countries, showed a consensus for adopting "TRT" as the preferred term.
• The recommendations are supported by references to established guidelines (Coenen et al., IAEA, ARRIVE, FAIR) and previous publications on radiobiology in TRT.

Discussions

• The recommendations are generally well-reasoned and based on existing best practices. However, the article could benefit from more specific examples of how to implement the recommendations.
• While the article mentions the importance of dosimetry, it could provide more concrete guidance on how to perform and report dosimetry calculations in preclinical TRT studies.
• The article correctly highlights the need to report negative data. It could be strengthened by providing examples of common pitfalls or biases in preclinical TRT research that can lead to misleading positive results.
• The recommendation to use "TRT" as a keyword is supported by the survey data.

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Reference: Recommendations for reporting preclinical radiobiological studies in targeted radionuclide therapy