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The time it takes for the amount of a drug in the blood to fall by half. It sets how often a drug must be given: hours to a day for small molecules such as kinase inhibitors, so they are taken daily, and two to four weeks for antibodies, so they are given every three or six weeks.
Small molecules are typically cleared by the liver and kidneys within hours to a day, so kinase inhibitors are taken daily; antibodies are protected from breakdown by recycling receptors and persist for two to four weeks, allowing dosing every three or six weeks. Half-life shapes both benefit and harm: a long-lived checkpoint inhibitor keeps working, and keeps causing immune side effects, for months after the last dose, while a radioactive drug's physical half-life (6.6 days for lutetium-177, 10 days for actinium-225) determines how long it irradiates the tumour. Pharmacokinetics is the study of these processes, and matching dose and schedule to them is central to dose optimisation.
Showing the technology this term belongs to: Radioligand therapy (beta emitters).
Shares Alpha vs beta emitters, Dosimetry, Radioligand therapy (beta emitters).
Shares Fc engineering / effector function, Antibody, Monoclonal antibodies.
Shares Alpha vs beta emitters, Dosimetry.
Shares Alpha vs beta emitters, Dosimetry, Radioligand therapy (beta emitters).
Shares Alpha vs beta emitters, Dosimetry, Radioligand therapy (beta emitters).
Shares Antibody, Monoclonal antibodies.
Shares Alpha vs beta emitters, Dosimetry, Radioligand therapy (beta emitters).
Shares Antibody, Monoclonal antibodies.