Toxic antibodies blitz tumours

"On 19 August, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the company's lead therapy, an antibody engineered to deliver a poisonous payload directly into lymphoma cells. The hope is that such antibodies, called antibody–drug conjugates, will sidestep the punishing toxicities of classical chemotherapies, which run loose in the bloodstream and kill healthy cells in addition to their targets."

"Seek and Destroy" -Functionality of antibody-drug conjugates as described in the article by Heidi Ledford. "Their power comes from their payloads: lethal drugs tethered to the antibody that remain harmless until the conjugate releases them inside cancer cells" 


"In July, an FDA advisory committee voted unanimously in support of accelerated approval for Adcetris after Seattle Genetics reported that 94% of the 102 people with Hodgkin's lymphoma in a trial of the treatment saw their tumours shrink, and 73% achieved partial or complete remission."


Extracts from the article "Toxic antibodies blitz tumours".  Published online 22 August 2011.  Nature.com.  To read the full article click the link in the title or use:
http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110822/full/476380a.html