Wen-Kai Weng, MD, PhD
Publication Details
-
Immune-mediated antitumor effects with antibody therapy.
American Society of Clinical Oncology Educational Book. 2005: 200-4
While antibody therapy is becoming a common practice in treating patients with cancer, the exact mechanism of how individual anti-tumor antibody works is still unclear. Different anti-tumor antibodies may kill tumor cells via different mechanisms depending on the antigens they target. Certain antibodies are designed to interrupt a specific signal transduction pathway or a growth receptor, while others are chosen because of the specificity of targeted antigens. The latter is especially true for antibody therapy targeting hematological malignancies, such as rituximab (anti-CD20), alemtuzumab (anti-CD52) and gemtuzumab (anti-CD33). None of these targeted antigens has a known biological function. Instead, the antibodies targeting these antigens rely on immune-mediated mechanisms, such as complement-mediated cytotoxicity and antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) to eliminate tumor cells. Studies of follicular lymphoma patients treated with rituximab have shown convincing evidence that ADCC plays a major role in rituxiamb's anti-tumor effect. However, complement-mediated cytotoxicity may still play a role when rituximab is used in patients with different histology. In addition, antibody-coated tumor cells may engage dendritic cells and facilitate tumor antigen presentation, which may induce tumor specific cytotoxic T cell immune response following antibody therapy.
Help
Trial Administration