In Snowman on the Pitcher’s Mound, the mother who is diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer chooses to be treated with radio-immunotherapy, or RIT. RIT is a targeted treatment that destroys cancerous B cells in patients by combining man-made antibodies, called monoclonal antibodies, with very small amounts of radiation.
Because RIT specifically targets cancer cells and mostly leaves the healthy ones intact, patients experience far fewer side effects than they do with chemotherapy drugs, which attack both healthy and cancerous cells, resulting in hair loss and other unpleasant side effects. And unlike chemotherapy, which requires months of treatment, RIT offers patients the convenience of getting back to their lives in a short period of time.
Perhaps most important, remission periods after RIT are often measured in years. Studies show that RIT has the potential to produce longer remission periods than any other single agent treatment that is currently available for lymphoma (the nation’s fifth most common type of cancer), leading some researchers to believe that RIT may be curative.
Snowman on the Pitcher’s Mound author Jamie Reno is alive today because of radio-immunotherapy, which for reasons that have nothing to do with its efficacy is not being utilized by very many cancer patients.
Here are some links that will tell you a little more about RIT.
Newsweek interview conducted by Jamie Reno with one of the nation’s most prominent oncologists who administers RIT in his clinic:
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thehumancondition/archive/2009/06/25/after-farrah-her-doctor-s-new-fight-she-s-a-role-model-for-all-of-us.aspx?print=true
Radio show Jamie Reno hosted recently in which he talks about radio-immunotherapy with several very prestigious guests:
http://www.amatotalk.com/podcasts/AMATO-04-20-09-HR1.mp3
Newsweek story in which the magazine’s Senior Editor Jonathan Alter, who is also a lymphoma survivor, talks about how Washington is nixing this cancer treatment:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/70301
New York Times story on how RIT is being underutilized by cancer patients:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/14/health/14lymphoma.html
Information about RIT from author, cancer survivor and patient advocate Betsy de Parry:
http://www.lymphomabook.com/RIT.html
RIT treatment information (Bexxar):
http://www.bexxar.com/
RIT treatment information (Zevalin):
http://www.zevalin.com
Pharmaceutical companies that manufacture RIT:
http://www.GSK.com
http://www.spectrumpharm.com
