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A humorous, intimate, compassionate insight into the experience of illness and the process of recovery
One half of all proceeds from orders made on this site
is donated to
to help the organization continue supporting patients and families who face lymphoma
About Radiommuntherapy
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The information contained in this section is intended to inform you about RIT. The treatment may or may not be appropriate for you. Only an oncologist who is experienced in RIT and who knows your particular circumstances can make that determination. You and your oncologist should discuss your treatment options, weigh the risks and benefits, and together, and decide what’s best for you.
With that said, if you had a choice after chemotherapy has failed, is it logical to use the same type of mechanism again? What if you had the following options for re-treatment?
A one week treatment that directly targets the cancerous cells and causes few
side effects.
Months of treatment with chemicals that randomly kill both normal and cancerous
cells, resulting in hair loss and other unpleasant, sometimes life-threatening, side
effects.
Months of isolation and recovery after a risky bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
For some patients with low grade B-cell lymphoma, Option 1 – the one week treatment - has been available since 2002, but annually, less than 10% of the patients who are eligible for it actually get it, but more about that later.
The one week treatment is called radioimmunotherapy, or simply RIT. There are two FDA approved RIT drugs, Bexxar and Zevalin, for treatment of low grade lymphoma, which occurs in approximately 40% of the lymphoma population. Both are approved for treatment of patients who have relapsed after at least one prior treatment or whose disease is refractory, meaning that it is resistant to chemotherapy and/or Rituxan. RIT is also approved for patients with “transformed” lymphoma, where the initial low grade disease has subsequently transformed to a more aggressive type.
INTRODUCTION
