Figure 1.

Local external beam radiotherapy versus systemic radioimmunotherapy (RIT) or other forms of molecular targeted radionuclide therapy. External beam radiotherapy is effective for locoregional non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) (left). NHL commonly presents as a multifocal disease. RIT capitalizes on: (1) specific monoclonal antibody targeting carrying therapeutic radionuclides to all NHL after an infusion (right) and (2) the sensitivity of malignant lymphocytes to radiation (reproduced with permission from DeNardo and O'Donnell (DeNardo GL, O'Donnell RT. Radiolabeled Lym-1 antibody therapy in lymphoma. Biol Ther Lymph 1999;2:8).