Monoclonal antibody therapy for B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphomas: Emerging concepts of a tumour-targeted strategy

Although much progress has been made in the understanding of the pathobiolo gy of malignant lymphomas in recent years, progress in the treatment of pat ients with this diagnosis has been Limited. Monoclonal antibody therapy is an innovative and promising concept in the treatment of malignant lymphoma, and the current status of this treatment is reviewed here. Phase I/II clin ical trials have proven the high antilymphoma activity of antibody-based th erapeutic strategies. Radioimmunoconjugates with myeloablative activity hav e induced response rates of between 80 and 100% in heavily pretreated patie nts. The chimeric monoclonal antibody IDEC-C2B8 has shown high antilymphoma activity in patients with relapsed follicular lymphoma with an overall res ponse rate of up to 50%. The combination of the IDEC-C2B8 antibody with sta ndard chemotherapy has shown encouraging results with no increase in toxici ty compared with chemotherapy alone. The introduction of antibody therapy p romises to open new perspectives in the treatment of patients with malignan t lymphoma. Prospective randomised clinical trials will define the patient who will gain maximal benefit from antibody-based therapy. (C) 1999 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.