Abstract
Approximately 100 years after P. Ehrlich's idea of using antibodies as ‘magic bullets' for tumour therapy, and 20 years after Köhler and Milstein's description of the hybdridoma technology, immunotherapy with monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) is now becoming an additional treatment option in oncology. For example, treatment with antibody 17-1A to the EpCAM molecule, which is overexpressed on the majority of colorectal cancers, reduced mortality of patients with resected Dukes' C colon carcinoma by 32% [1]. C2B8—a human/mouse chimeric IgG1 antibody to the B cell differentation antigen CD20—induced clinically relevant responses in approximately 50% of patients with relapsed low grade lymphoma [2]. This response rate is in the range of what can be achieved with conventional chemotherapy in these patients. Furthermore, the combination of chemotherapy and 4D5—a humanised IgG1 antibody against the proto-oncogen product HER-2/neu, which is overexpressed in approximately 30% of patients with breast cancer, but also in other common cancers such as prostate, lung and colorectal—significantly improved survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer compared to chemotherapy alone [3].
Published Version
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