Ideas about how to help the human body resist disease or fight disease that has already found a foot hold can be taken only so far in the laboratory. Eventually, the most promising therapies must advance to the clinical trial stage where patients contribute to, and often benefit from, a front line assessment of how well they work. We see cancer's impact first-hand. It's a pretty strong motivator. Weiner, whose mother died of cancer when he was 17, emphasized that cancer research represents a long-term investment.
Progress is slow.
But when it comes, it's highly gratifying. Rituximab is a monoclonal antibody, the first approved by the Food and Drug Administration for cancer treatment. Most study participants were treated with rituximab alone in four outpatient infusions over four weeks. Investigators soon observed that the side effects of rituximab were considerably less than with chemotherapy and tended to diminish after the initial infusion. While it is impossible to say that any patient has been cured, Weiner and Link are satisfied that rituximab is at least as effective as chemotherapy for this specific group of patients and far less toxic as well.