Radioimmunotherapy

Since Paul Ehrlich proposed the hypothesis (Scitenkettentheorie) more than a century ago that bacteria can be killed by selective usage of certain compounds having specific affinity to the bacteria and thus acting as a magic bullet, antibodies have captured the imagination of scientists dealing with diseases. Cancer was and still remains among the most intriguing and challenging of diseases for which the exact cure for its many forms is not available to date. Parallel to the development of certain compounds such as sulfur and nitrogen mustard, with the capacity to modify the DNA and thus retard and kill the growth of cancer cells (Sausville and Longo 2005), Pressman and colleagues showed that radiolabeled antibodies had the potential to localize tumors in rabbits (Pressman and Keighley 1948; Pressman und Korngold 1953; Pressman et al. 1957). This was soon followed by first attempts by Beierwaltes and his colleagues at curing cancer in patients using radiolabeled polyclonal antibodies. An inability to find a way to purify the antitumor globulin from other globulins in order to increase the specificity was the major limitation of the study (Bale and Spar 1957; Pressman and Korngold 1953).