# Gallium-68 pentixafor

Source: https://nuclide.cc/drugs/ga-68-pentixafor/  
Nuclide record `ga-68-pentixafor` (Agent). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

An experimental PET tracer that looks for a specific docking protein (CXCR4) that some blood cancers and a minority of solid tumours carry in excess. It is a research tool, not an approved scan.

## Summary

68Ga-Pentixafor has been used in over 1,300 patients across more than 75 publications, mostly at academic centres (Memorial Sloan Kettering, Technical University of Munich, and others) under investigator INDs, with no serious adverse events reported to date. Its clearest oncology signal is in multiple myeloma, indolent lymphomas and myeloproliferative neoplasms, where CXCR4 overexpression on malignant plasma cells or lymphocytes gives high image contrast; a first proof-of-principle study in myeloproliferative neoplasms found bone-marrow SUVmean of 6.45 versus 4.44 in healthy controls.

In solid tumours the picture is more mixed: a retrospective series of 142 patients across 23 histologies found discernible CXCR4 uptake above blood pool in only 68% of scans, indicating that receptor expression is present but inconsistent outside the haematological setting. Beyond oncology, the tracer is also being explored for primary aldosteronism lateralisation and unstable atherosclerotic plaque, reflecting CXCR4's broader role in inflammation. It has not been submitted for marketing approval anywhere and remains supplied through academic radiopharmacies under IND/IMPD exemptions.

## Fields

- Kind: Agent
- Status: phase-2
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Also known as: 68Ga-Pentixafor; Gallium (68Ga) boclatixafortide
- Tags: CXCR4; myeloma; investigational
- Modality: PET tracer
- Mechanism: A cyclic peptide analogue of the chemokine CXCL12, radiolabelled with gallium-68, that binds the chemokine receptor CXCR4. CXCR4 is upregulated on the surface of several haematological cancers (multiple myeloma, lymphomas, myeloproliferative neoplasms) and, less consistently, in solid tumours, so uptake marks tissue with high receptor density.

## Sources

- Advances in PET imaging of the CXCR4 receptor, Seminars in Nuclear Medicine 2023: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10792730/
- CXCR4-directed PET/CT with 68Ga-pentixafor in solid tumours (142 patients), 2023: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10957681/

## Connected records

- isotopes: [Gallium-68](https://nuclide.cc/isotopes/ga-68/)
- technologies: [PET (positron emission tomography)](https://nuclide.cc/technologies/pet/)
- targets: [CXCR4](https://nuclide.cc/targets/cxcr4/)
- indications: [Primary aldosteronism](https://nuclide.cc/indications/primary-aldosteronism/)
- opportunities: [CXCR4 imaging instead of adrenal vein sampling](https://nuclide.cc/opportunities/opp-cxcr4-primary-aldosteronism/)

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