In-vivo chemistry for pretargeted tumor imaging and therapy in mice

Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have long been recognized as effective tumor-targeting vehicles. Targeted delivery of radionuclides to tumorassociated antigens for imaging and therapy of cancer is an active research area in the preclinical as well as the clinical domain [2]. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval at the beginning of this century of the first two radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies (Zevalin and Bexxar) for the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients is a landmark event in the history of radioimmunotherapy (RIT, Figures 1 and 2). Targeted radiopharmaceuticals are well-suited for the therapy of this disease, as the tumors are very accessible to antibodies, and the lymphocytes are very sensitive to radiation.