Targeted Radiotherapy: Is the “Holy Grail” in Sight?
Carmel Mothersill and Colin B. Seymour McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Correspondence: For correspondence or reprints contact: Carmel Mothersill, PhD, Department of Medical Physics and Applied Radiation Sciences, McMaster University, 1280 Main St. W, Hamilton, Ontario, L8S 4K1, Canada E-mail: mothers{at}mcmaster.ca’ + u + ‘@’ + d + ”//–> The “Holy Grail” of radiotherapy is to find a treatment or technique that can maximize tumor cell sterilization, minimize normal tissue damage, and be refractive to selection for resistance. It is too early to tell whether targeted radiotherapy using radiopharmaceuticals will fulfill its promises but the work of Boyd et al. (1), which is so technically elegant and biologically sound, leads one to hope. Their article shows that potent toxins are produced by the tumor cells that have concentrated radiohalogenated metaiodobenzylguanidine (MIBG). The toxins appear to be distinct from those elicited by conventional radiotherapy, and toxicity
