# One aligned table of contraception and breastfeeding intervals after lutetium-177 therapy

Source: https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-pu-lutetium-177-family-planning-table/  
OnCo record `idea-pu-lutetium-177-family-planning-table` (Idea). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

After lutetium-177 treatment for prostate cancer or neuroendocrine tumours, patients are told how long to avoid pregnancy or breastfeeding, but the numbers differ by source: 3 months, 14 weeks, 4 months, 6 months or 7 months. A single table, with the reasoning for each figure, would let teams and families give the same answer.

## Summary

What the sources say. The US label for Pluvicto (lutetium-177 vipivotide tetraxetan) advises men with female partners of reproductive potential to use effective contraception for 14 weeks after the last dose. The US label for Lutathera (lutetium-177 dotatate) advises women of reproductive potential 7 months and men 4 months, and no breastfeeding for 2.5 months after the last dose. The joint EANM/SNMMI procedure guideline for lutetium-177 PSMA therapy (2023) advises contraception during and for 3 months after therapy, and introduces this advice with the words "Without specific evidence for 177Lu-PSMA-RLT". The joint IAEA, EANM and SNMMI guidance on peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (2013) advises women to avoid pregnancy for at least 6 months. The European product information could not be read by script, so European and UK figures are not included.

Why it matters. A family hears different numbers from a leaflet, a website and a clinician, with no way to know which applies or why. The figures derive from different reasoning (radiation dose, genotoxicity, sperm and egg development cycles, drug excretion) that the documents mostly do not state side by side.

What is unknown. No study compares the intervals, and none has measured whether patients understand or follow them.

## Fields

- Kind: Idea
- Last checked: 2026-11-11
- Tags: protocol-upgrade; upgrade:untested; evidence:insufficient
- Hypothesis: A single table issued jointly by the nuclear medicine societies, giving for each lutetium-177 product the contraception interval for women and for men and the breastfeeding interval, with the basis of each figure, reduces conflicting advice and improves patient understanding.
- Rationale: The disagreement is visible in documents a patient may read on the same day, and resolving it needs a consensus statement rather than new research.
- Proposed test: A society Delphi to produce the table, followed by a randomised comparison of patient understanding using current leaflets against a leaflet built on the aligned table.
- Maturity: speculative
- Actor: policy

## Sources

- Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan) US prescribing information, DailyMed (August 2026): https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=14908037-2892-4d98-a053-253ce35afb1a
- Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate) US prescribing information, DailyMed (January 2026): https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=72d1a024-00b7-418a-b36e-b2cb48f2ab55
- Kratochwil et al., Joint EANM/SNMMI procedure guideline for the use of 177Lu-labeled PSMA-targeted radioligand-therapy (European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2023): https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-023-06255-8
- Bodei et al., The joint IAEA, EANM, and SNMMI practical guidance on peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRNT) in neuroendocrine tumours (European Journal of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2013): https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-012-2330-6

## Connected records

- cancers: [Neuroendocrine tumours](https://onco.cc/cancers/neuroendocrine/), [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/)
- fronts: [Radiopharmaceuticals & Theranostics](https://onco.cc/fronts/radiopharma/)
- technologies: [Oncofertility and fertility preservation](https://onco.cc/technologies/fertility-preservation/)
- drugs: [Lutetium-177 dotatate](https://onco.cc/drugs/lutathera/), [Lutetium-177 vipivotide tetraxetan](https://onco.cc/drugs/pluvicto/)
- institutions: [European Association of Nuclear Medicine](https://onco.cc/institutions/eanm/), [International Atomic Energy Agency: Rays of Hope](https://onco.cc/institutions/iaea/), [Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging](https://onco.cc/institutions/snmmi/)
- bottlenecks: [Knowledge reaches practice too slowly](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-knowledge-diffusion/), [Regulatory divergence between regions](https://onco.cc/bottlenecks/b-regulatory-fragmentation/)
- protocols: [Radiation safety at home after lutetium-177 PSMA or dotatate therapy](https://onco.cc/protocols/lutetium-177-therapy-home-radiation-safety/)

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