Monoclonal antibodies targeting hematological malignancies

The current prognosis is excellent for children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) and Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (HL). However, patients who relapse or progress can have a dismal prognosis. Further, children with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) have a good, but not excellent, prognosis with upfront therapy. Furthermore, despite these advances in outcome, children still suffer acute and long-term morbidity and mortality from upfront and re-induction chemotherapy. Surface targets have been identified in ALL, AML, NHL and HL and concomitant monoclonal antibodies have been developed to these surface targets and many have been recently approved by regulatory authorities. In this review, we summarize the safety and clinical application of therapeutic monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of paediatric haematological malignancies and discuss the future direction of this new targeted therapy approach.