Big antibody news
The “third generation” humanized anti-GD2 antibody with protein fusion of IL2 to the antibody has completed Phase I and II clinical trials for melanoma and neuroblastoma, and is now ready for use in Phase III clinical trials. The license for hu14.18-IL2 was just acquired by a small biotech in Vienna called Apeiron. The license was acquired from Merck.
Apeiron’s press release:
Long-term follow up of children with and without ch14.18/CHO in German trials NB90 and NB97
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1471-2407-11-21.pdf
Germans report on outcomes of relapsed NB patients who received three different regimens
Treatment and outcomes of patients with relapsed, high-risk neuroblastoma: Results of German trials.
Simon, T., Berthold, F., Borkhardt, A., Kremens, B., De Carolis, B. and Hero, B. (2011), Treatment and outcomes of patients with relapsed, high-risk neuroblastoma: Results of German trials. Pediatric Blood & Cancer, 56: 578–583. doi: 10.1002/pbc.22693
This is an important publication and was presented at ANR 2010. Few groups have tackled relapsed NB in any systematic way. Wendy London’s abstract presented at ASCO 2010 and ANR 2010 on survival after relapse suggests that some relapsed NB children are salvageable, and the Germans and Swedes are advancing understanding in treating relapse. This same approach looking at more aggressive measures for relapsed leukemia kids is how relapse protocols were developed to treat relapsed leukemias.
Drs John Maris and Yael Mosse awarded patent for ALK mutation link to diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of neuroblastoma
Summary of patent:
Great mini-review on oncolytic viruses
Opinion: Can viruses kill cancer? : The future of cancer clinical trials may rest with oncolytic viruses
CHK1 suspected to be a promising target in NB — inhibitors are being tested in adults
”CHK1 mRNA expression was higher in MYC–Neuroblastoma-related (MYCN)–amplified (P < 0.0001) and high-risk (P = 0.03) tumors.”