ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various approaches that are being used in preclinical and clinical studies to estimate tumor dosimetry associated with radioimmunotherapy (RAIT), and suggests future directions for dosimetry research in this field. The radiobiological principles of RAIT are discussed in greater detail by Langmuir et al. Radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) offer the potential of highly localized, targeted radiation treatment of cancer. The ability to quantify the dose delivered to tumor and normal tissues when using radiolabeled MoAbs has been a perplexing problem. The development of effective radiolabeled MoAbs for RAIT requires the selection of an appropriate radionuclide. To optimize the efficacy of RAIT, it will be necessary to develop combinations of MoAbs or antibody fragments and radionuclides whose pharmacokinetics, physical half-lives that is the largest possible therapeutic ratio. The generic term "Medical Internal Radiation Dose formalism" commonly used when referring to many calculations associated with radiolabeled antibody dosimetry must be specified with more precision.
