CALCRL as a Radioligand Therapy Target
CALCRL, calcitonin receptor like receptor, is a cell-surface protein (GPCR). In Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry, CALCRL staining is highest in skin cancer (100% of samples positive), breast cancer (100% of samples positive) and thyroid cancer (100% of samples positive). Evidence on whether CALCRL internalizes is mixed. Clinical status: Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality).
Is CALCRL a good radioligand therapy target?
Scored against the six criteria that decide whether a protein can become a radioligand therapy:
- ✅ Cell-surface accessibility: Localized to the cell surface, so a radioligand can reach it from circulation.
- ✅ Tumor expression: High IHC staining in skin cancer, 100% of samples positive.
- ⚠️ Internalization: Mixed evidence.
- ✅ Clinical precedent: Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality)
- ❔ Shedding: Not yet assessed.
- ❔ Normal-tissue dosimetry: Check kidney, liver, bone marrow and salivary expression in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas.
CALCRL expression in cancer
Protein expression of CALCRL across 20 cancer types from Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry. The score is a weighted staining intensity from 0 to 1; "% positive" is the share of patient samples with detectable staining.
| Cancer type | IHC score | Level | % positive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skin Cancer | 0.94 | High | 100% |
| Breast Cancer | 0.64 | High | 100% |
| Thyroid Cancer | 0.58 | High | 100% |
| Lung Cancer | 0.58 | High | 100% |
| Head and Neck Cancer | 0.58 | High | 75% |
| Kidney Cancer | 0.53 | High | 100% |
| Testicular Cancer | 0.53 | High | 100% |
| Glioma | 0.53 | High | 100% |
| Prostate Cancer | 0.50 | Medium | 100% |
| Cervical Cancer | 0.50 | Medium | 92% |
| Bladder Cancer | 0.47 | Medium | 92% |
| Endometrial Cancer | 0.46 | Medium | 100% |
| Colorectal Cancer | 0.44 | Medium | 100% |
| Pancreatic Cancer | 0.42 | Medium | 91% |
| Liver Cancer | 0.39 | Medium | 100% |
| Gastric Cancer | 0.36 | Medium | 83% |
| Neuroendocrine Tumors | 0.33 | Medium | 100% |
| Ovarian Cancer | 0.33 | Medium | 67% |
| Melanoma | 0.19 | Low | 42% |
| Lymphoma | 0.18 | Low | 46% |
Is CALCRL internalized?
Uncertain. Insufficient literature found.
CALCRL clinical trials
Clinical-stage (up to phase 3, any modality). Nuclens hasn't indexed trials for CALCRL yet. Search ClinicalTrials.gov for CALCRL trials.
CALCRL normal tissue expression
Normal-tissue expression in dose-limiting organs (kidney, liver, bone marrow, salivary glands) drives radioligand dosimetry risk. Nuclens is re-validating its normal-tissue values, so they are not shown here yet. See CALCRL in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas, and read how normal-tissue expression predicts radioligand dosimetry risk.
CALCRL gene essentiality (DepMap)
CRISPR knockout effect across 1256 cancer cell lines: 0.08 (not essential). Radioligands kill by radiation, not by blocking the target, so essentiality matters less than for inhibitors. A non-essential target can still be an excellent radioligand target.
Related skin cancer radioligand targets
EGFR · c-MET (MET) · HER3 (ERBB3) · B7-H3 (CD276) · SSTR2 · ITGB6 · HER2 (ERBB2) · ITGAV
See all radioligand therapy targets in skin cancer.
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Subcellular localization: UniProt via Open Targets (CC BY 4.0 / CC0). Tumor immunohistochemistry: Human Protein Atlas (CC BY-SA 4.0). Clinical trials: ClinicalTrials.gov (public domain). Gene essentiality: DepMap (CC BY 4.0). Internalization and shedding: AI-extracted from PubMed abstracts, so verify against the cited papers before relying on them. Nuclens is a first-pass triage layer, not a substitute for wet-lab validation or clinical dosimetry. Derived expression data on this page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.