Survival rates increased about 20% for children with high-risk neuroblastoma enrolled in a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital clinical trial that included a novel monoclonal antibody produced onsite. The findings appeared today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Neuroblastoma is a cancer of immature nerve cells in the sympathetic nervous system. The tumor is diagnosed in about 700 individuals annually in the U.S., mostly children 5 years old or younger. Despite aggressive therapy, nearly half of patients with high-risk neuroblastoma die of their disease.
Results of a St. Jude phase II clinical trial reported significantly higher survival rates for newly diagnosed patients whose treatment included the humanized monoclonal antibody hu14.18K322A along with standard therapy for high-risk disease. Three-year disease-free survival was 73.7% for the 64 children enrolled in the study. The overall survival was 86%.
“I have treated high-risk neuroblastoma for 30 years, and I have never seen results like this in high-risk patients,” said first and corresponding author Wayne Furman, M.D., of the Department of Oncology. “This is the best result published to date for patients with high-risk neuroblastoma, period.”
