Pritumumab, the first therapeutic antibody for glioma patients.

Immunotherapy is now at the forefront of cancer therapeutic development. Gliomas are a particularly aggressive form of brain cancer for which immunotherapy may hold promise. Pritumumab (also known in the literature as CLNH11, CLN-IgG, and ACA-11) was the first monoclonal antibody tested in cancer patients. Pritumumab is a natural human monoclonal antibody developed from a B lymphocyte isolated from a regional draining lymph node of a patient with cervical carcinoma. The antibody binds ecto-domain vimentin on the surface of cancer cells. Pritumumab was originally tested in clinical trials with brain cancer patients in Japan where it demonstrated therapeutic benefit. It was reported to be a safe and effective therapy for brain cancer patients at doses 5-10 fold less than currently approved antibodies. Phase I dose escalation clinical trials are now being planned with pritumumab for the near future. Here we review data on the development and characterization of pritumumab, and review clinical trails data assessing immunotherapeutic effects of pritumumab for glioma patients.