Breast Cancer: Radioimmunoscintigraphy and Radioimmunotherapy

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most common diseases and a major public health problem in the world today. It is responsible for 32% of all cancers and 15% of cancer deaths in women (Dirisamer et al., 2010). Advances in diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer have led to decline in mortality. However, just about 60% of patients can now be cured by initial treatments, but the rest, in spite of receiving palliation with currently available therapy methods die. Therefore, tremendous amounts of time and efforts are dedicated to search toward earlier detection and more efficient treatment of this disease. Advances in molecular cancer biology achieved an increased understanding of the biologic factors that contribute to breast cancer pathogenesis and progression. This understanding has already led to both early diagnosis and more effective treatment. Among different imaging and therapy contribution modalities, nuclear medicine provides an important role to the clinical management of breast cancer. In this chapter, we highlight the uses, advantages, limitations and possible improvements of radioimmunoscintigraphy and radioimmunotherapy techniques as targeted molecular imaging and therapy methods, respectively.