Addition of Immunotherapy Boosts Pediatric Cancer Survival in Children with Neuroblastoma

Sept. By Jackie Carr Administering a new form of immunotherapy to children with neuroblastoma, a nervous system cancer, increased the percentage of those who were alive and free of disease progression after two years, according to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and fellow institutions. The percentage rose from 46 percent for children receiving a standard therapy to 66 percent for children receiving immunotherapy plus standard therapy, according to the study published in the Sept. 30, 2010 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine . "This is the first clinical trial to document that a combination of anti-cancer monoclonal antibody (mAb) with cytokines is an effective anti-cancer therapy," said Alice L. Yu, MD, PhD, study chair and Professor of Pediatric Hematology Oncology at Moores UCSD Cancer Center. "This is also the first time a mAb targeting a glycolipid is shown to be effective for cancer immunotherapy since all therapeutic anti-cancer mAbs previously approved by FDA are directed against protein antigen. Overall, these findings present a clear paradigm shift and establish immunotherapy as a cornerstone to high-risk neuroblastoma treatment.