Radiotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Radiotherapy, including details on cancer treatment, side effects.

Antitenascin-C monoclonal antibody radioimmunotherapy for malignant glioma patients.

Reardon DA, Zalutsky MR, Bigner DD

Department of Surgery, Division of Neurosurgery, Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA. reard003@mc.duke.edu

Adults with primary malignant glioma have an unacceptably poor outcome. Most of these tumors recur at or adjacent to the site of origin, which indicates that failure to eradicate local tumor growth is a major factor contributing to poor outcome. Therefore, locoregional therapies may improve local control and overall outcome for malignant glioma patients. Malignant gliomas selectively express several factors that are not present on normal CNS tissue. Regional administration of radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies targeting tumor-specific antigens expressed by malignant gliomas offers an innovative therapeutic strategy that has recently demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity and acceptable toxicity in clinical trials at a number of centers. Most studies have utilized monoclonal antibodies against tenascin-C, an extracellular matrix glycoprotein ubiquitously expressed by malignant gliomas. This review summarizes clinical trials performed using radiolabeled antitenascin-C monoclonal antibodies for malignant glioma patients to date and highlights future plans to further develop this therapeutic strategy.

Published 11 May 2007 in Expert Rev Anticancer Ther, 7(5): 675-87.
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