ABSTRACT

The use of radiation therapy in the treatment of hematological malignancy has been well established and is highly effective if the disease is localized, as both lymphomas and leukemias are exquisitely sensitive to cell death by radiation. The use of monoclonal antibody (mAb) in routine clinical practice is well established and has arguably led to some of the most significant improvements in outcome for patients in hematological malignancies as well as in a wide range of other malignancies including breast and bowel cancer. Radioimmunotherapy (RIT) is the administration of mAb or mAb-derived constructs, which are chemically conjugated to therapeutic radioisotopes targeted to tumor. One of the fundamental potential advantages of radioimmunotherapy is the ability to deliver higher targeted radiation dose to the tumor than to normal tissue and thus enhance the specific tumor killing. The physical characteristics considered important for a radioisotope in RIT include half-life, type of radioactive emissions, and ionization path length.