Limitations of the radiotheranostic concept in neuroendocrine tumors due to lineage-dependent somatostatin receptor expression on hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells

Rationale: Radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) has become an effective treatment option for neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and castration-resistant prostate cancer and is in clinical development for many indications. One of the major advantages of theranostic RPT is that the distribution of radiopharmaceuticals in the human body can be imaged, and radiation doses to the patient’s organs can be calculated. However, accurate dosimetry may be fundamentally limited by microscopic heterogeneity of radiopharmaceutical distribution. Methods: We developed fluorescent analogs of somatostatin-receptor-subtype 2 (SSTR2) targeting Lutetium-177 labeled radiopharmaceuticals that are clinically used in patients with NETs and studied their uptake by hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPC) using flow cytometry and microscopy. Results: Hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) and multipotent progenitor cells (MPPs) showed high and specific SSTR2-ligand uptake, which was at similar levels as NET cells. Furthermore, they displayed a several-fold higher uptake of SSTR2-antagonists than of SSTR2-agonists. HSPC treatment with a 177Lu-labeled antagonist and agonist showed a stronger reduction of HSC proliferation by the antagonist. Due to the scarcity of HSCs and MPPs, their contribution to total bone marrow uptake of SSTR2-radiopharmaceuticals is negligible in imaging-based dosimetry. This likely explains why SSTR2-antagonists caused pancytopenia in clinical trials despite safe dosimetry estimates. Conclusion: Target expression heterogeneity can lead to underestimation of radiopharmaceutical toxicity and should be considered when designing clinical trials for new radiopharmaceuticals. The implications of our findings go beyond SSTR2-targeted radiopharmaceuticals and suggest more generally that first-in-human studies should not only be guided by radiation dosimetry but should also include careful escalation of the administered therapeutic activity. Our multimodal ligand design is modular and can be applied to other peptide or protein-based radiopharmaceuticals to study cellular distribution and potential bone marrow uptake prior to clinical testing.