Figure 1

The natural somatostatin receptor ligand, the 14 amino acid peptide somatostatin (A), was abridged to the biologically more stable 8 amino acid peptide Octreotide (OC, B), which is used for the treatment of symptomatic neuroendocrine tumors. Introduction of a tyrosine into the 3rd position of the Octreotide sequence resulted in Tyr³-Octreotide (TOC, C), which allows for iodination of the tyrosine residue with the γ-emitter ¹²³I and subsequent somatostatin receptor targeted imaging. For the use in somatostatin receptor targeted radiotherapy TOC was coupled with the chelator DOTA, which led to the study drug, the octapeptide DOTA-TOC (D).