Andrew Schorr, the founder and host of Patient Power, interviewed Dr. Anton Hagenbeek of the University Medical Center Utrecht Netherlands about the result of clinical trials of radioimmunotherapy (RIT) to combat follicular lymphoma. The treatment uses a monoclonal antibody that is covalently bound to Y-90, which is a beta emitter. The monoclonal antibody selectively binds itself to the cancer cells to allow the Y-90 betas to target and destroy the invasive tissue.
Dr. Hagenbeek agreed when Schorr described this approach as a smart bomb approach that produces less damage to innocent bystanders. Though I have no intention of attempting to summarize the lengthy discussion, I will say that I was impressed when Dr. Hagenbeek favorably compared the effectiveness of a single dose of RIT to 16 injections of rituximab (one every 2-3 months over a three year period.) He was surprisingly reserved in his description of the incredible lifestyle improvement that the single dose of radioimmunotherapy provides compared to the 16 doses of chemotherapy.
Robert Schenter shared the above video interview which was conducted at the American Society of Hematology Meeting in 2011. This video has been available on YouTube for about 18 months, but it has only been viewed about 215 times. It is hard to believe that such interesting news about a cost and time effective cancer treatment has received such little attention.
Because it is radiation. God forbid anything good comes out of radiation even though life evolved during the Archean and Proterozoic with much higher levels of background radiation.