Monoclonal Antibodies

Over the last decades, progress has been made in diagnostic imaging, surgical techniques, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy for the treatment of tumors of the central nervous system. However, the outcome for patients with high-grade gliomas (HGG) has remained essentially unchanged. The use of monoclonal antibodies (MAbs), either unarmed or armed, to target and kill HGG cells has appeared as a prospective adjuvant therapeutic option. The potential of this approach is being investigated in a large number of clinical trials currently in progress for patients with HGG; the encouraging results of some of these phase I/II trials will be summarized here. In this chapter, we review the critical components for the safe, efficient, and practical implementation of MAb-based immunotherapy for HGG patients as well as the current and future targetable antigens and their corresponding monoclonal antibodies.