Gemtuzumab ozogamicin

Excerpt

Several prognostic factors dominate the prospects of further response when a relapse of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) occurs, including age, duration of the first remission and cytogenetic subgroup. These features are more important than the treatment used and must be borne in mind when evaluating any treatment of relapsed disease. All chemotherapy causes toxicity and therapeutic success is heavily dependent on managing the toxicity. More targeted treatment which affects only the leukaemic population would be an ideal strategy but has been limited in AML due to the lack of a leukaemia-specific target. The CD33 antigen is a useful target, firstly because it is expressed on the surface of leukaemic cells in most patients and secondly it has limited expression on normal tissues. Humanisation of the antibody has enabled repeated dosing schedules to be developed but naked antibody has had limited therapeutic success. …