CION Ameerpet
Radiation Therapy · Theranostics & Radioisotope Therapy
Where Radioisotope Therapy Is Available — Hyderabad and South India
Medically reviewed by Dr. Venkata Sushma P, Radiation Oncologist, MBBS · MD (Radiation Oncology) · Last reviewed August 2026
Lu-177 and the other radioisotope therapies are delivered at licensed nuclear-medicine departments — not at ordinary radiotherapy centres, and not at every cancer hospital. Hyderabad has such facilities, and so do a handful of other South Indian cities. This page sets out what a centre must hold before it can offer this, the referral route your oncologist actually follows, and what really decides how long you wait.
- Available in Hyderabad, but not everywhere — Only nuclear-medicine departments with an AERB licence and a shielded therapy room can deliver it.
- The referral route, step by step — What your treating oncologist has to do before anyone can give you a date.
- What actually decides the wait — The eligibility scan, the isotope order and the room slot — not a queue number.
- Coordinating from abroad or a district town — Reports reviewed remotely first, so travel is timed to a real date, not a guess.
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The short answer
Where is Lu-177 radioisotope therapy available in Hyderabad?
Lu-177 therapy is available in Hyderabad at hospital nuclear-medicine departments that hold an Atomic Energy Regulatory Board licence for therapeutic radioisotopes and have a shielded therapy room. It is not offered at every cancer hospital. It is not offered at ordinary radiotherapy centres at all. In South India the same facilities exist in a small number of other cities.
That distinction is the whole reason this question is hard to answer by searching. A hospital can have an excellent radiation oncology department, a modern linear accelerator and a full surgical team, and still not be able to give you a single dose of a therapeutic radioisotope — because a radioisotope is a licensed radioactive medicine, not a beam. It has to be ordered, transported, stored, administered in an approved room, and its waste held until it decays. Each of those steps is separately regulated.
So the practical question is not “which hospital is best”. It is: which nuclear-medicine department currently holds the right licence, can obtain the isotope your team is considering, and has a room slot in a workable window. That answer changes month to month, which is why we do not publish a list of hospital names here. Your radiotherapy and radioisotope therapy are delivered at an NABH-accredited partner centre; CION Cancer Clinics coordinates your treatment plan, your oncology team and your care throughout — and we will tell you which partner facility your plan would run at once your reports have been looked at.
If the idea of treating with a radioactive medicine is new to you, read Theranostics: Treatment With Radioactive Medicine Explained before you go hunting for a centre. Understanding what the scan is for makes the referral route below make a great deal more sense.
Did you know?
Every facility in India that stores and administers a therapeutic radioisotope needs a licence from the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), and the therapy room, the radioactive-waste holding arrangements and the trained staff are all part of what is licensed. That is why radioisotope therapy sits in a small number of nuclear-medicine departments rather than being available at every cancer hospital — the constraint is regulatory and physical, not commercial. It is also why a centre that offers one isotope does not automatically offer another.
How to tell a centre can do this
What does a centre need before it can offer radioisotope therapy?
Four things, and all four have to be in place at the same time. If you are ringing round hospitals yourself, these are the questions worth asking — they cut through marketing language quickly.
Licence
An AERB-licensed nuclear-medicine department
Not a radiotherapy department. Ask specifically whether the centre is licensed to administer therapeutic radioisotopes — many are licensed only for diagnostic scans, which is a different permission.
Imaging
The matched diagnostic scan
Radioisotope therapy is only considered after a scan confirms the target is present. The centre needs access to the right PET-CT tracer, not just any PET-CT. No confirming scan, no therapy.
Rooms
A shielded room and a waste plan
Several protocols need a shielded isolation room for a day or more, plus arrangements to hold radioactive waste until it decays. Room availability is a real bottleneck, not a formality.
Team
A nuclear-medicine physician working with your oncologist
The therapy is prescribed jointly. A centre that can inject a dose but has no oncology team following your case is not the same as a coordinated plan with follow-up built into it.
Availability, at city level
Which radioisotope therapies are generally available in South India?
This is a city-level picture, not a directory and not a ranking. It reflects where licensed nuclear-medicine departments are generally concentrated, as of August 2026. Individual centres start and stop offering particular isotopes, so treat every row as a starting point for a phone call rather than a fact about a specific hospital.
| Therapy | Usually considered for | Where it is generally available in South India* | Practical note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lu-177 PSMA therapy | Advanced prostate cancer that has progressed after standard treatment, with a scan confirming the target | A small number of nuclear-medicine departments, mainly in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Vellore and Kochi | Needs the matched PET-CT first; the isotope is ordered per patient |
| Lu-177 therapy for neuroendocrine tumours | Advanced neuroendocrine tumours with confirmed receptor uptake on a scan | Fewer centres again — largely the same major-city departments | Usually needs a specialist receptor scan that not every centre runs |
| I-131 radioiodine therapy | Thyroid cancer, most often after surgery | The most widely available of these — several departments in Hyderabad and across the southern states | Almost always needs an isolation-room admission |
| Ra-223 therapy | Prostate cancer that has spread to bone | Limited to larger nuclear-medicine departments in the major cities | Given as a series of injections rather than a single admission |
| Sm-153 and Sr-89 bone-pain injections | Widespread painful bone secondaries, for pain relief | Available at a modest number of nuclear-medicine departments, Hyderabad included | Supply of these isotopes is intermittent; ask before travelling |
*Indicative and city-level only, as of August 2026. This table does not name, rank or endorse any facility, and it is not a statement that a given therapy is appropriate for you — that is a clinical decision your treating team makes with you. If bone pain is the reason you are reading this, Samarium and Strontium Injections for Widespread Bone Pain covers that route in detail.
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The route, in order
What is the referral route for radioisotope therapy?
It starts with your treating oncologist, not with the nuclear-medicine department. You cannot book a dose the way you book a scan. Your oncologist raises it, your records and imaging are reviewed, an eligibility scan confirms the target is there, and only then is a date arranged. Six steps, and they happen in this order.
- Your treating oncologist raises it as an option. This is not a self-referral route. If you do not have an oncologist following your case yet, that is the gap to close first — a free consultation is a reasonable place to start that chain.
- Records and recent imaging are reviewed. Diagnosis, pathology, what treatment you have already had, and scans from the last few months. This step can be done entirely on emailed reports, which matters if you are coordinating from another city or another country.
- The eligibility scan is booked. A PET-CT with the matching tracer, to confirm the target is actually present on your disease. This scan is the gate. If it does not show the target, this route is closed — and it is far better to learn that before anyone travels or pays for a protocol.
- A nuclear-medicine physician and your oncologist decide together. Suitability is a joint call, usually taken with your blood counts and kidney function in front of them. Being medically suitable and being scan-positive are two separate hurdles.
- Insurance or scheme approval and a written estimate. Pre-authorisation is asked for before cycle one, not claimed afterwards. Indicative, dated cost ranges are set out on our cost of theranostics and radioisotope therapy page — ask for your own estimate in writing.
- The dose is ordered and the date is fixed. Only now does an admission date appear, because the isotope is ordered for you specifically and has to arrive in a usable window. You will be given fasting, medication and admission instructions with it.
One thing worth knowing before you start: radioisotope therapy and external beam radiation are used for different jobs, and being told you are not suitable for one says nothing about the other.
The honest answer
What are typical waiting times for radioisotope therapy?
Most families wait somewhere between two and six weeks from the first specialist review to the first cycle. That is indicative, not a promise, and your own timeline is set by your team. The wait is rarely a queue for a machine. It is the scan slot, the isotope order, the room booking and the approvals, stacked end to end.
The useful thing about that list is that four of the five items can be started in parallel rather than one after another. A relative coordinating from abroad or from a district town can shorten the wait considerably just by asking for the insurance pre-authorisation to begin while the eligibility scan is being arranged, instead of waiting for the scan report to land first.
What the waiting time is actually made of
- The eligibility scan slot — usually the first real wait, and it depends on when the matching tracer is available at the centre, not just on the appointment book.
- The isotope order — therapeutic radioisotopes are not kept on a shelf. A dose is ordered for you, and it decays, so it has to arrive inside a usable window. This is the step families are least prepared for.
- Isolation-room availability — where a protocol needs a shielded room, the room is often the binding constraint. Our page on the isolation room stay explains what those hours involve.
- Blood counts and organ-function results — these are checked before the dose is committed, and a borderline result can move a date by a week or two.
- Insurance or scheme pre-authorisation — approval sought early is far less disruptive than a claim raised later. Start it while the scan is being arranged.
- The gap between cycles — if more than one cycle is planned, the cycles are deliberately spaced apart. That spacing is clinical, not administrative; how many cycles you will need sets out how a protocol is usually structured.
Nothing here is a guaranteed timeline. Dates are set by your treating team and by the centre delivering the therapy, and both can change for good clinical reasons.
If you are arranging this for someone else
How do I arrange this from abroad or from a district town?
Start with the reports, not with the travel. Diagnosis, pathology and recent scans can be reviewed remotely, so the first step needs no flight and no overnight bus. Travel is then timed around a real scan date and a real admission date rather than around a guess.
- Send the paperwork in one go — diagnosis summary, pathology report, the last two or three scan reports, and a list of treatments already given. A partial file is the commonest cause of a wasted week.
- Ask three questions in one email — is the eligibility scan the right next step, where would the treatment be delivered, and what is the indicative timeline. Asking them together avoids a fortnight of back-and-forth across time zones.
- Plan one trip, not three — where possible the consultation, the eligibility scan and the first admission are sequenced so a family travelling in makes a single journey.
- Sort the approvals before you fly — insurance pre-authorisation or a scheme eligibility check can run while you are still at home. Our team runs the scheme check as part of the free consultation.
- Ask about the days after the dose — several protocols carry a short precautions period at home. Living With Someone After Radioisotope Therapy sets out what a household actually has to do, which matters if an elderly parent lives with young grandchildren.
- Keep one number for the whole thing — a single coordinator who knows the case is worth more than four departments who each know a quarter of it. You can reach ours on 1800 202 8726.
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Common questions
Availability, referral and waiting times — your questions answered
Where is Lu-177 radioisotope therapy available in Hyderabad?
It is available in Hyderabad at hospital nuclear-medicine departments that hold an Atomic Energy Regulatory Board licence for therapeutic radioisotopes and have a shielded therapy room. It is not offered at every cancer hospital, and it is not offered at ordinary radiotherapy centres. CION Cancer Clinics does not own or operate a nuclear-medicine facility. Your therapy would be delivered at an NABH-accredited partner centre, and CION Cancer Clinics coordinates your treatment plan, your oncology team and your care throughout. We will tell you which partner facility your plan would run at once your reports have been reviewed.
Which centres in South India offer radioisotope therapy?
Radioisotope therapy is concentrated in a small number of licensed nuclear-medicine departments, mainly in the larger cities — Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Vellore, Kochi and Visakhapatnam among them. We do not publish a ranked list of hospitals, because availability changes month to month and because the right centre for you depends on the isotope your team is considering. What we can do is check, for your specific case, which partner facility is currently able to deliver it and how soon.
What is the referral route for radioisotope therapy?
It starts with your treating oncologist, not with the nuclear-medicine department. Your oncologist raises it as an option, your records and recent imaging are reviewed, and an eligibility scan is booked to confirm the target is actually present. A nuclear-medicine physician and your oncologist then decide together whether the therapy is appropriate. Only after that are insurance or scheme approval, the isotope order and an admission date arranged. If you do not have a treating oncologist yet, a free consultation is a reasonable place to begin that chain.
How long is the wait to start radioisotope therapy?
In practice most families wait somewhere between two and six weeks from the first specialist review to the first cycle. That is indicative, not a promise, and your own timeline is set by your team. The wait is rarely a queue for a machine. It is usually the eligibility scan slot, the isotope order, the isolation-room booking and the insurance or scheme approval, arranged in that order. Asking for all four to be started in parallel is the single most useful thing a coordinating relative can do.
Can we arrange this from outside India or from a district town?
Yes, and it is a routine request. Reports and scan images can be reviewed remotely before anyone travels, so the first step does not need a flight or an overnight bus. Families coordinating from abroad usually ask for three things in one email: whether the eligibility scan is the right next step, where the treatment would be delivered, and an indicative timeline. Ask for all three together. Travel is then timed around the scan and the admission date rather than around a guess.
Does CION Cancer Clinics have its own Lu-177 or nuclear-medicine facility?
No. CION Cancer Clinics does not own or operate a linear accelerator, a CyberKnife or Gamma Knife unit, a proton facility or a nuclear-medicine department, and CION is not itself NABH-accredited. Radiotherapy, radioisotope therapy and PET-CT are delivered at NABH-accredited partner centres. What CION does is coordinate — the review of your reports, the tumour board opinion, the eligibility scan, the referral, the paperwork and the follow-up — so that one team stays responsible for the plan even though the treatment itself happens at a partner facility.
This page describes how and where radioisotope therapy is generally delivered in Hyderabad and South India. It is not a directory, a ranking or an endorsement of any facility, and availability changes. Nothing here is a promise of a treatment date, a clinical recommendation or a statement that this therapy is appropriate for any particular person — that decision belongs to your treating team. CION Cancer Clinics does not own or operate radiotherapy or nuclear-medicine equipment and is not itself NABH-accredited; radioisotope therapy and PET-CT are delivered at NABH-accredited partner centres, and CION coordinates the plan, the team and the care.