ED-B fibronectin as a target for antibody-based cancer treatments

Chemotherapeutic agents for the treatment of solid cancers do not discriminate between malignant and normal tissue, but rather depend on the increased proliferation of tumour cells versus benign cells. To reach therapeutically active concentrations in the tumour, large doses of these rather unspecific compounds have to be given to the patient, often resulting in severe side effects. Therefore, the goal of modern cancer research is the development of highly selective compounds which are able to discriminate between tumour tissue and normal tissue. One promising approach in this direction is antibody-mediated targeted cancer therapy which may either block an important receptor-ligand interaction or deliver a therapeutically active molecule to an otherwise nonfunctional target. A prerequisite for such an approach is the tumour-selective expression of the respective target structure. This review discusses extra domain-B fibronectin as a promising target which is associated with tumour angiogenesis and tumour growth for the development of novel antibody-mediated therapies.