| abstract |
Improvements in methods for treating diseases and tumors with compositions of matter defining drug units, each of which includes an antibody, such as a monoclonal antibody produced outside of the body of a living being to be treated. Each unit contains a quantity of normally inactive nuclide capable of being rendered radioactive for treating a disease and a quantity of a second nuclide which may be normally inactive or radioactive, such as a radionuclide. The antibody is targeted to a specific antigen existing in the patient being treated. The drug units emit such radiation upon being activated within the body by radiation such as neutron radiation generated to detect the presence of a particular disease in a living being and to provide an indication of the location and extent of such disease. Once a concentration of disease cells is so located by analyzing signals derived from one or more detectors of radiation generated by a nuclide carried by antibodies to the disease site, and its extent or shape is determined by analysis of direct or reconstructed images of the interior of the body at the site, nuclide material carried to the detected site may be activated by properly controlling the location of a source of activating radiation, its direction and activation to effect treatment of the disease. Treatment radiation may include atomic disintegration of a small quantity of a nuclide, such as boron-10 by absorption of neutrons directed through the body, which disintegration results in the generation of high velocity particles or fragments capable of the localized destruction of diseased cells such as cancer cells. |