Klin Onkol 2003; 16(3): 138-140.
Summary: Alemtuzumab is another monoclonal antibody, which has found its place in oncology. Furthermore, is seems that its usage can be even broader. Alemtuzumab is humanized anti-CD52 antibody targeted to the lymphocytes. In this review, the history of alemtuzumab discovery, mechanism of action, side effects, and mode of administration are described. So far, the greatest experience has been gathered in the field of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Despite of the fact that the majority of patients had been heavily pretreated, alemtuzumab was effective. Further areas of indications are T lymphocyte malignancies, especially T prolymphocytic leukemia. There are also reports indicating effectiveness of alemtuzumab for the treatment of autoimmune cytopenias, and its usage as an immunosuppressive drug in other indications. Alemtuzumab can be also used for the T-cell depletion in the setting of allogeneic transplantation of hematopoietic cells.
