[Radionuclide therapy--a possible way toward an improved treatment of cancer. The obstacle is the shortage of commercially available radionuclides for clinical use].
About one third of all cancer develops into a spread disease that is difficult to treat. Radioimmunotherapy has during the last years proven to be of help when other therapy modalities fail in e.g. lymphomas. The development in this area is fast mainly due to substantial improvements in molecular biology and in our increasing understanding of specific receptor expressions in cancer cells. However, radionuclides used today, 131I and 90Y, are not optimal in that sense that they emit radiation mainly suitable to treat the bulk tumor and not the single cell and micrometastases present in spread disease. The article stresses the importance that radionuclides with more suitable emission of particles like 177Lu and 211At are made available for clinical research and routine.
Lundqvist
Hans
H
Rudbecklaboratoriet, Uppsala universitet. hans.lundqvist@bms.uu.se
Carlsson
Jörgen
J
Gedda
Lars
L
Tolmachev
Vladimir
V
Garske
Ulrike
U
Kairemo
Kalevi
K
D006801:Humans; D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011868:Radioisotopes / Q000191:economics / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000600:supply & distribution / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015021:Yttrium Radioisotopes / Q000627:therapeutic use
D007457:Iodine Radioisotopes; D011868:Radioisotopes; D015021:Yttrium Radioisotopes