New radioactive therapy using terbium-161 shows promise for treating lymphoma.
Scientists have found promising new treatment for lymphoma using a radioactive substance called terbium-161. Lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the lymphatic system, which is part of the body’s immune system. Each year, many people are diagnosed with lymphoma, and despite advances in medicine, it remains a serious illness with a high death rate. Researchers are always searching for better ways to treat it, and this new therapy could offer hope to many patients.
The new treatment works by combining terbium-161 with an antibody that specifically targets lymphoma cells. Antibodies are special proteins that can find and attach to certain parts of cancer cells, helping deliver the radioactive substance right where it’s needed. In this case, the antibody is designed to attach to a part of the lymphoma cells called the CD30 receptor, which appears on the surface of many lymphoma cells. When the antibody brings terbium-161 to these cells, the radioactive material can kill them without harming most of the healthy cells nearby.
This approach is different from traditional cancer treatments like chemotherapy or radiation therapy that can affect many healthy parts of the body and cause side effects. Because terbium-161 targets the cancer cells directly, it is expected to be more precise and less harmful to the rest of the body.
Radiation therapy using radioactive substances is already a known treatment for some cancers. For example, lutetium-177 is used to treat prostate cancer and other tumors. Lutetium-177 releases beta particles that can destroy bigger tumors effectively. However, it is less useful against lymphoma because lymphoma cells often spread in the blood and don’t form large, easy-to-target tumors.
What makes terbium-161 stand out is that it produces not only beta particles but also smaller particles called conversion and Auger electrons. These tiny particles travel only very short distances—about the size of a single cell. This allows terbium-161 to target and kill even individual cancer cells or tiny clusters of cells that are hard to reach with other treatments. This precision makes terbium-161 especially promising for lymphoma, where cancer cells are often scattered rather than forming big lumps.
The researchers tested this new treatment in the lab and on mice. They found that the terbium-161 antibody was much better at killing lymphoma cells than the version that used lutetium-177. The damage caused by terbium-161 to the cancer cells’ DNA was harder for the cells to fix, making the treatment more effective. When tested on mice with lymphoma, those treated with terbium-161 lived twice as long on average as those treated with lutetium-177. Some of the mice even became completely cancer-free.
One useful feature of terbium-161 is its half-life of about seven days. This means the radioactive power decreases by half every week, allowing the treatment to remain strong enough to work but then fade quickly enough to reduce long-term risks. This also helps hospitals receive and use the treatment without it losing its strength.
The team behind this discovery comes from the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. They made the terbium-161 antibody themselves and carried out detailed experiments to see how well it worked. Their results give hope that this method could be tested in humans soon. The next step will be clinical trials to find out how safe and effective terbium-161 treatment is for people with lymphoma.
Funding for this research has come from different organizations that support cancer research, including one called The Lymphoma Challenge. The scientists are now working on improving the treatment further and preparing it for testing on patients.
If terbium-161 therapy proves successful in clinical trials, it could offer a new option for patients with lymphoma, especially those whose cancer is hard to treat with current methods. The ability to target lymphoma cells precisely, even when they are spread throughout the blood, could help doctors control or even cure the disease more effectively.
This discovery shows how combining knowledge from different fields—like radiation science and immunology—can lead to new ways to fight cancer. While it will take time and more research before terbium-161 therapy becomes widely available, it brings new hope for better lymphoma treatments in the future.
Sources:
Terbium therapy shows promise in fighting lymphoma
Terbium may be a powerful new treatment in the fight against lymphoma
Join the conversation!