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Lymphoma Lymphoma Treatment NHL Treatment

A New Way to Attack NHL

Summary & Participants

One of the newest treatments for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is radioimmunotherapy, a clever mixture of old and new that better targets cancer cells.

Medically Reviewed On: July 08, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: One of the newest developments in the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, or NHL, is radioimmunotherapy. Radioimmunotherapy uses drugs called monoclonal antibodies, which are similar to antibodies the immune system makes to fight infection. These antibodies have a radioactive component attached to them, which attacks a protein on the surface of a cancer cell and destroys the cell.

RUSSELL SCHILDER, MD: The reason radioimmunotherapy has been targeted right now for lymphoma is we have the right target, the CD20 antigen. It's limited to B-cells. Lymphocytes and lymphoma cells are very sensitive to radiation therapy. If you radiate too much of the body, the toxicity becomes excessive. So this is a way, in fact, of radiating the whole body without having to expose the same amount of normal tissue.

ANNOUNCER: Radioimmunotherapy differs from traditional radiation therapy in several ways.

LEO GORDON, MD: Traditional radiation targets a tumor mass, but it leaves totally untreated single cells that might be floating in other areas. And so traditional radiation is a very effect way of treating a localized tumor. But radioimmunotherapy offers an opportunity to deliver radiation to multiple sites in a targeted fashion at, we hope, safe doses.

RUSSELL SCHILDER, MD: Most radiotherapy in a traditional way is external beam. The radiation has to go through skin and other normal tissues before it hits the target of interest. By getting radioimmunotherapy, the radiation is brought right to the tissues of interest by the antibody that the radioactivity is linked to. The other difference between them is external beam often is Monday through Friday for many weeks. And radioimmunotherapy is one treatment one week, one treatment the next week, and then the treatment's over.

ANNOUNCER: Current radioimmunotherapies include Zevalin and Bexxar. Both therapies are delivered through a vein and generally require several visits over a period of time lasting one to two weeks. And the side effect profiles of each appear to be minimal.

RUSSELl SCHILDER, MD: The side effects other than the radiation side effects are mostly related to the same cold antibody that we use in rituximab therapy. They're related to fever, chills, a little fatigue, headaches; they're very non-specific, very well managed, and not very serious.

ANNOUNCER: Although there is still much to be learned about radioimmunotherapy, it is proving to be a promising new area of treatment for patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.