The idea behind radiopharmaceuticals is simple enough to explain in a sentence. Instead of aiming a radiation beam through the body and accepting damage to everything in its path, attach a radioactive particle to a molecule that seeks out cancer cells, and let the radiation travel to the target.
As more of these therapies move through clinical trials, developers are finding the picture less clean. Reporting from STAT describes isotopes that are designed to be far more targeted but that, while traveling to their biological destinations, are inadvertently exposing patients' kidneys, liver or bone marrow along the way.
