Antibodies in cancer immunotherapy

Monoclonal antibodies are currently being used as potential therapeutics against cancer. So far, eight monoclonal antibodies have been approved by FDA for human use and all these antibodies are effective in the treatment of patients with variety of cancers. Also, there is a long list of several antibodies which are in late stage clinical trials awaiting potential approval by the FDA for use in the clinic. Monoclonal antibodies exert their effects on tumor cells either directly or indirectly thereby eliminating or reducing the tumor burden in cancer patients. In this review we will focus our discussion on different monoclonal antibodies that are currently being used for immunotherapy of different types of cancers, their mechanism of action, several strategies that are being used to improve the effectiveness of these monoclonal antibodies and their potential use in combination therapy approaches along with different chemotherapeutic agents. The field of antibody therapy has ushered in a new and vast research paradigm that is definitely impacting public health.