Targeted Radiotherapy in HSCT for Poor Risk Haematological Malignancy

The aim of this clinical research study is to establish whether a radiolabelled antibody can be used to safely deliver radiotherapy to the bone marrow prior to stem cell transplantation for haematological malignancies.

With current chemotherapy regimens 60-90% of adult patients with acute leukaemia (AML and ALL) achieve a complete remission. However in a significant proportion of these patients the disease will recur. Although allogeneic and autologous bone marrow or peripheral blood haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) are established as effective treatment options for haematological malignancies, resulting in long term disease free survival in a significant proportion of patients, the results of transplantation for patients with poor risk disease are disappointing. Further intensification of the treatment used prior to transplantation has been shown to reduce the risk of relapse, but the toxicity of the drugs or external beam radiotherapy causes an increase in transplant related deaths. The introduction of reduced intensity conditioning protocols allows the use of HSCT for older patients or those with significant additional medical problems but retrospective analysis indicates an increased rate of relapse. This is the 'Transplantation dilemma' - how to reduce the risk of disease relapse by intensifying therapy, but without an increase in toxicity to other organs causing an increase in transplant related deaths in remission.

Normal haematopoietic tissue and the malignant cells arising from it are very radiosensitive. Theoretically intensification of the conditioning therapy, particularly total body irradiation (TBI), prior to transplantation could increase tumour reduction leading to improved disease free survival rates for patients with poor risk disease. Targeted radiotherapy could allow treatment intensification without the toxicity to non-haematological tissues. In addition, the continuous, low dose rate delivered by the natural decay of a targeted radionuclide may have a greater destructive effect upon tumour cells than single dose or fractionated external beam radiation.