Targeted high-LET therapy of bone metastases

Abstract

Bone metastases cause pain, and may result pathological fractures, spinal cord compression and bone marrow insufficiency. External beam radiation relieves pain, but this treatment modality is limited by lack of tumor cell selectivity. Short track length bone-seeking radioisotopes associated high Linear Energy Transfer offer an attractive alternative for the treatment of bone metastases. The advantages of this approach over external beam radiation are presented and recent preclinical and clinical experience are discussed in this chapter. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.