Zevalin for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

St. Anthony Cancer Center offers Zevalin - a drug used in radioimmunotherapy treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Lymphoma is a tumor caused by the over-production of white blood cells and new clinical trials show that using Zevalin is more effective at curing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma than other treatment methods. Do you have more questions about radioimmunotherapy with Zevalin? Call the St. Anthony Cancer Center and we'll be glad to answer your questions or assist in the referral process, 720-321-8350.

How does radioimmunotherapy work for lymphomas?
White blood cells have special receptors on their surface that are different from all other types of cells in the body.  Antibodies are produced by the immune system and attach to cell surface receptors. If a radioactive drug is attached to antibodies that are matched to  white cell receptors, then only the white cells will be "tagged" by the drug. Since lymphomas are a growth of these white cells, the radioimmunotherapy injection (Zevalin) "tags" and destroys only the  cancer cells, while not harming other healthy cells.

What is the Zevalin treatment process? 
Once it is determined that a patient is a candidate for radioimmunotherapy with Zevalin, an imaging study is done first to measure how the drug will be distributed in the body.

On the day of Zevalin treatment, chemotherapy is given (within four hours) prior to coming to the hospital. In the hospital radiology department, the Zevalin is given by a single injection using a small IV syringe. After the injection, there are some measurements taken and typically the patient leaves the hospital in less than one hour.