Summary

Epidermal growth factor receptor is an attractive target for the development of radiopharmaceuticals for the management of epithelial-derived tumors that overexpress this antigen. Several monoclonal antibodies directed against this target have been employed for such purpose, nimotuzumab among them, developed in the Center for Molecular Immunology (Cuba). The aim of the present work was to describe the state of the art labeling of nimotuzumab with different radionuclides and some of their applications. Nimotuzumab has been labeled with ^99mTc using DTPA and HYNIC derivatives, and directly using carbonyl complexes and by Schwarz’s method for immune-SPECT. Labeling with ⁶⁷Ga y ⁸⁹Zr, the last one for immune-PET, has been also reported, while it has been labeled with ¹¹¹In, ¹⁸⁸Re, ⁹⁰Y, ¹⁷⁷Lu and ²²⁵Ac for radioimmunotherapy. There is an expanding research to obtain radiopharmaceuticals for molecular imaging and therapy based on nimotuzumab, due to the advantages of this antibody. 

Key words: nimotuzumab, labeling, radiopharmaceutical.