Antibodies in Cancer Treatment: Early Clinical Development

The use of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of oncologic diseases has heralded a new era in cancer therapy. With the approval of the first monoclonal antibody for cancer treatment, rituximab in 1997, clinical and translational research has led to the development of multiple platforms and agents for the treatment of a wide variety of malignancies. We now have the ability to harness the body's own immune system for clinical gain by using antibodies directed at the components of the immune system. Additionally, drugs manipulating the intracellular signaling of both the tumor and the tumor microenvironment are in clinical use. Advances in technology have paved the way for immunoconjugates, combining the specificity of therapeutic antibodies with the destructive power of cytotoxic agents, radionuclides, or cellular toxins. Finally, agents with different mechanisms of action - some understood and some less-well characterized - have entered clinical trials. In this chapter, we review a broad selection of monoclonal antibodies currently being tested in early clinical development, with a hope to instill in the reader the great promise held by such agents in the treatment of a wide variety of oncologic diseases.