TABLE OF CONTENTS M.R.Zalutsky
Departments of Radiology and Biomedical Engineering, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina USA
Radionuclide therapy utilizes unsealed sources of radionuclides as a treatment for cancer or other pathological conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Radionuclides decaying by the emission of ? and ? particles have been used for this purpose, as well as those emitting Auger electrons. In this chapter, radiochemical aspects of radionuclide therapy will be discussed including criteria for radionuclide selection, radionuclide production, radiolabeling chemistry and radiation dosimetry.
The toxic effects of radiation have long been recognized and applied to the treatment of a variety of pathological conditions, notably cancer and rheumatoid arthritis. In its most widely applied manifestation, tumor irradiation is achieved by focusing an external beam of radiation on the malignancy. A less common approach, brachytherapy, involves the implantation of an unsealed source of radiation, usually in the form of a wire or a pellet, in close proximity to the tumor. Although these forms of radiation therapy have been effective in the treatment of many diseases, they have intrinsic limitations that compromise their effectiveness. To be effective, external beam radiation and brachytherapy require knowledge of the precise location and geometrical configuration of the tumor in order to maximize destruction of cancer cells while minimizing radiation dose to neighboring normal tissues. In addition, these treatment modalities are of limited utility for treating multi-focal tumors and metastasis cancer sites. In order to circumvent this limitation, a concerted effort has been devoted to developing radionuclide...
