Treatment of patients with malignant lymphomas with monoclonal antibodies

Malignant lymphomas represent a heterogenous group of B and T cell-derived malignancies. Most lymphomas are sensitive to chemo- and radiotherapy, however many patients will eventually relapse. Immunotherapeutic approaches including monoclonal antibodies, cytokines or vaccination approaches may offer an alternative treatment of chemotherapy-resistant residual cells especially in cases with low tumor burden or residual disease following chemo- or radiotherapy. Monoclonal antibodies have been successfully applied in their native form, or coupled with radioisotopes or toxins to selectively destroy lymphoma cells and promising results in early clinical trials have been obtained. Alternatively, bispecific antibodies and idiotypic vaccination strategies are used to target autologous T cells to eliminate lymphoma cells. A humanized anti-CD20 antibody showed excellent results in chemotherapy refractory lymphomas and has recently been approved for clinical application in CD20 positive B cell lymphomas.