ABSTRACT
Until this chapter, we have limited the discussions to an emphasis on a single type of therapy: absorbed dose delivery via a targeting agent. This strategy may be called targeted radionuclide therapy (TRT) (Williams, DeNardo, et al. 2008). In some instances, such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), we have mentioned in passing the associated use of unlabeled antibodies to the CD20 target molecule on the human B-cell surface. As seen in Chapters 8 and 9, absorbed doses achievable with radioimmunotherapy (RIT) are effective in treating lymphoma in NHL patients but generally not so in the case of solid tumors. Estimated dose values are, in fact, comparable to the two types of disease as seen in Chapter 8. The elevated sensitivity of B cells to ionizing radiation is the reason for the wide clinical application of TRT to lymphoma as part of standard hematology practice. Aside from using catheter placement of activity, there is, at this time, no analogous application of RIT or other therapeutic radionuclide strategy to solid tumors.
