Abstract

Treatment of cancer is a double-edged sword: it should be as aggressive as possible to completely destroy the tumour, but it is precisely this aggressiveness which often causes severe side effects — a reason why some promising therapeutics can not be applied systemically. In addition, therapeutics such as cytokines that physiologically function in a para- or autocrine fashion require a locally enhanced level to exert their effect appropriately. An elegant way to accumulate therapeutic agents at the tumour site is their conjugation/fusion to tumour-specific antibodies. Here, we discuss recent preclinical and clinical data for antibody–drug conjugates and fusion proteins with a special focus on drug components that exert their antitumour effects through normal biological processes.

Author affiliations

1. University of Wuerzburg, Dermatology, 97080 Wuerzburg, Germany
2. The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, California 92037, USA

Published online 20 January 2006

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