First effective immunotherapy for high-risk neuroblastoma

A team led by San Diego medical researcher Alice Yu published in New England Journal of Medicine their break-through results of the first ever immunotherapy proved to be effective for high-risk neuroblastoma patients. This new treatment was first announced in the 2009 edition of ASCO meeting (see previous post). Children with this disease normally have a grim prognosis. Yu's group treated children after standard high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell rescue with a monoclonal antibody against a surface molecule commonly found in neuroblastomas - the disialoganglioside GD2. Anti-GD2 therapy along with isotretinoin and IL-2 boosted patients' disease-free survival by 20% (44 to 64% 2 years after diagnosis). This result is superior to conventional treatment. The only drawback was the high amount of toxicity in immunotherapy-treated patients. Read the article here.