Midkine as a novel target for antibody therapy in osteosarcoma

Osteosarcoma is a malignant tumor with poor prognosis, and lack of accurate prognostic factors is one of the reasons that make this tumor difficult to cure. The heparin-binding growth factor, midkine is involved in generation and progression of many types of tumors. However, the relationship between midkine and osteosarcoma has been unclear. We show here that midkine is overexpressed in osteosarcoma and the level of midkine expression is correlated with prognosis (P<0.05; log-rank test). Treatment with functional antibodies against midkine suppresses growth of osteosarcoma cell lines, 9N2, 3N1, Saos-2, and NOS-1, to 25-65% of untreated controls. Our results suggest that midkine is useful as a prognostic marker, and is a candidate therapeutic target for osetosarcomas.