Good news for cancer patients: Dr. Arturo Casadevall and Dr. Ekaterina Dadachova of the Albert Einstein Cancer Center at Yeshiva University have demonstrated that radioimmunotherapy may be used as a safer means to treat (and possibly prevent) cancer.

Drs. Casadevall and Dadachova's carried out their study on mice bearing either human cervical cancer and human liver cancer cells. Basically, the radioimmunotherapy works by targeting the viruses that cause cancer. Casadevall and Dadachova latched radioisotopes onto antibodies, where they were injected into the bodies of the mice. The antibodies homed in on specific protein targets, while the piggybacked radioisotopes destroyed the cells to which those proteins were attached, effectively slowing down the tumor growth in some mice, and causing tumor regression in others.

The beauty of the Casadevall and Dadachova's treatment was that, unlike chemotherapy, radioimmunotherapy left the mice's healthy tissues undamaged. If or when the radioimmunotherapy technique is perfected, it may prove instrumental in eradicating one of the deadliest diseases known to modern humans.