Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY
*Correspondence to: Chaitanya Divgi, MD, Professor, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, Attending Physician and Member, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, NY 10021. E-mail: divgic@mskcc.org
The recent approval of two radiolabeled antibodies against CD20-positive lymphoma has led to a resurgence of interest in radioimmunotherapy. As with chemotherapy more than five decades ago, progress has been most marked in the hematologic neoplasms, both in myeloablative as well as non-myeloablative therapeutic strategies. Success in the radioimmunotherapy of solid tumors has been hampered by the immunogenicity of murine proteins and the relatively slow clearance of humanized intact immunoglobulins. Genetic engineering has enabled the development of a variety of antigen-binding constructs of various sizes and immunobiologic characteristics. Developments in radiochemistry as well as production of an increasing number of radionuclides with therapeutic potential and/or optimal imaging characteristics have spurred “tailored” therapeutic strategies which include dosimetry considerations of tumor burden. Such progress has generated pivotal studies that will establish the radiobiologic paradigms for successful radioimmunotherapy in solid tumor. This review will describe the current status of radioimmunotherapy in lymphoma and other hematologic neoplasms, and outline seminal studies that have paved the way to an understanding of radioimmunotherapy in solid tumors. Finally, the authors’ views of the future of this promising cancer therapy will be presented.
