Patent ID: 7744878

Claim:
A method of inhibiting growth of cancerous cells in a human individual comprising administering to the individual an effective amount of a composition comprising: (i) a chimeric or humanized antibody and (ii) a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, wherein: (A) said chimeric or humanized antibody comprises the three complementarity determining regions (CDRs) from the heavy chain and the three complementarity determining regions (CDRs) from the light chain of antibody mPA7 produced by a host cell with a deposit number of ATCC No. PTA-3706, and further comprises constant regions sufficient to induce an active immune response against cancerous cells (B) said chimeric or humanized antibody specifically binds to the human CD46 antigen at the epitope recognized by antibody mPA7; wherein said cancerous cells express said human CD46 antigen having the epitope recognized by antibody mPA7 on their cell surface, and bind said chimeric or humanized antibody, which induces an active immune response against said cancerous cells and inhibits their growth.