title: An overview of monoclonal antibody therapy of cancer.
abstract: Monoclonal antibody-based therapeutics are beginning to realize the promise that was predicted with the advent of the core technology more than 20 years ago. Antibody-based therapeutics targeting tumor cell surface antigens such as B-cell idiotypes, CD20 on malignant B cells, CD33 on leukemic blasts, and HER2/neu on breast cancer cells have shown efficacy in clinical trials. Multiple antibody-based strategies have shown promising efficacy in recent clinical trials. Unconjugated immunoglobulins directed against CD20 induce partial and complete responses in up to 50% of patients with advanced, indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphoma When such antibodies are conjugated to appropriate radionuclides and administered in therapeutic doses, the proportions of complete and overall responses increase considerably. Conjugates composed of anti-CD33 antibodies and the chemotherapy agent, calicheamicin, show promising activity in patients with relapsed or refractory acute myelogenous leukemia. Treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer using the anti-HER2/neu antibody trastuzumab (Herceptin; Genentech, San Francisco) leads to objective responses in some patients whose tumors overexpress the HER2/neu oncoprotein. These exciting results justify recent enthusiasm for continued efforts to refine existing approaches and to develop new antibody-based strategies to treat human malignancy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA 19111, USA.
authors.forename: L M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Weiner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D018796:Immunoconjugates / Q000627:therapeutic use; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000502:physiology; D007155:Immunologic Factors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000922:Immunotoxins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases / Q000276:immunology; D000068878:Trastuzumab
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D061067:Antibodies, Monoclonal, Humanized; D018796:Immunoconjugates; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; D007155:Immunologic Factors; D000922:Immunotoxins; D018719:Erb-b2 Receptor Tyrosine Kinases; D000068878:Trastuzumab