# Rhenium-188 skin cancer therapy

Source: https://nuclide.cc/drugs/re-188-sct/  
Nuclide record `re-188-sct` (Agent). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

A radioactive paste is spread over a thin film placed on top of a skin cancer. The radiation only travels a few millimetres, so it treats the visible tumour without surgery, cutting, or affecting deeper tissue.

## Summary

Rhenium-SCT (Skin Cancer Therapy) is a non-invasive, single-session epidermal brachytherapy for non-melanoma skin cancer (basal cell carcinoma and cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma), developed by OncoBeta. Rhenium-188 (half-life about 17 hours) is produced on demand from a tungsten-188/rhenium-188 generator and formulated as a resin that is applied to an adhesive foil placed over the lesion, so the radioactive material never directly contacts the skin. A typical prescribed dose is 50 Gy to the deepest point of the lesion (target depth up to about 3 mm).

The device and compound are registered in Australia (ARTG, class IIb, from 2020-2022) and hold CE marking, with use reported across Europe, the UK, New Zealand and South Africa; it does not have FDA approval. A single-arm, multicentre phase 4 post-marketing study (EPIC-Skin) reported, at 12 months, lesion-based complete response in 94.1% and partial response in 3.2% of 185 evaluable lesions, with no toxicities above CTCAE grade 2 and favourable cosmetic and quality-of-life outcomes; an earlier Italian series (Castellucci et al., EJNMMI Physics) reported 98% complete lesion response at 6 months in 54 evaluable lesions.

Because treatment is external and the isotope's beta range is only a few millimetres, Rhenium-SCT is positioned for lesions ≤3 mm deep and ≤8 cm2 in difficult-to-treat cosmetic or functional sites (nose, ear, lip, digits, genitals) where surgery or conventional external-beam radiotherapy is less attractive.

## Fields

- Kind: Agent
- Status: approved
- Last checked: 2026-09-22
- Also known as: Rhenium-SCT; 188Re epidermal radionuclide therapy
- Tags: brachytherapy; skin cancer; beta emitter; non-invasive
- Brand: Rhenium-SCT
- Modality: brachytherapy source
- Mechanism: A resin containing the beta- and gamma-emitting radioisotope rhenium-188 is applied directly to the skin over a thin protective foil moulded to the shape of a non-melanoma skin lesion. Beta particles penetrate only a few millimetres, delivering a high local dose to the tumour (about 92% of the dose within 2 mm) while a single outpatient application typically lasts under an hour.
- Approvals: EU/UK/AU/NZ/ZA 2015: Shallow (≤3 mm deep) basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma without perineural invasion or high-risk pathology
- Dosing: Topical epidermal application (resin on adhesive foil placed over the lesion); Single outpatient session, typically prescribing 50 Gy to the deepest point of the lesion

## Sources

- OncoBeta: Rhenium-SCT technology overview: https://www.oncobeta.com/technology/
- EPIC-Skin phase 4 study, 12-month results (PMC, 2025): https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12197855/
- Castellucci et al., high-dose brachytherapy with non-sealed 188Re for non-melanoma skin cancer, EJNMMI: https://www.healthcert.com/hubfs/EJNMMI%20Castellucci%20-%20Savoia%20et%20al.%202020.pdf
- Australian MSAC public summary document on Rhenium-188 brachytherapy for skin cancer: https://www.msac.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-07/1657.1_final_psd_-_april_2025_-_redacted.pdf

## Connected records

- isotopes: [Rhenium-188](https://nuclide.cc/isotopes/re-188/)
- technologies: [Low-dose-rate seed brachytherapy](https://nuclide.cc/technologies/ldr-seed-brachytherapy/)

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