In the last few news alerts I talked about Imclone 's experimental monoclonal antibody C225. This represents a novel way of treating many cancers. In this column I want to get into some scientific details so that when hear about a new class of anticancer drugs called kinase inhibitors you will understand how they work and their relationship to monoclonal antibodies. So now to school-please be seated. As used for the treatment of cancer monoclonal antibodies are designed to target a cell surface molecule that is relatively specific for a type of cancer.
Many monoclonals are in development.
One of the nice features is that this class of drugs has in general a much more benign side-effect profile than traditional chemotherapy. At first blush it might be thought that these drugs work by binding their target and interrupting a cancer-driving signal. Indeed many of the targets are receptors for various growth factors, which do drive cell division. For example the monoclonal C225 targets and binds to the epidermal growth factor receptor, which is expressed on many cancers. However, it is clear from many experimental systems that just interrupting the signal is probably not the whole story.