CRC Press Antibodies in Diagnosis and Therapy: Technologies, Mechanisms and Clinical Data: 3 (Studies in Anthropology and History)

Monoclonal antibodies have had their impact on biomedical research for more than a decade. Beside their exuberant use as reagents, quite a number of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches have been followed and an impressive number of technological improvements, e.g., humanization, recombinant miniantibodies, have been elaborated to strengthen the principle. With respect to clinical applications, the first generation of antibody 'drugs' is yielding promising results while second and third generation antibody constructs are already underway. The book reviews the status of technological development and brings this into the perspective of clinical results. A rapidly growing amount of clinical data is collected in an expanding number of indications. Hence, the review of clinical study results has been grouped according to the fields of oncology and of chronic and acute inflammation. This book will be of interest to scientists working in the fields of oncology, immunology, internal medicine and clinical chemistry. About the Author Siegfried Matzku is head of the Department of Gene Expression and Biotechnology within Preclinical Research of Merck KGaA and he has an affiliation with the University of Karlsruhe, Faculty of Biology and Geology. He is the author of over I 00 research articles and articles in books. His research interests stem from his longstanding work at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, and he pursues those in the pharmaceutical industry: tumor biology (adhesion molecules), tumor diagnosis (immunoscintigraphy) and tumor therapy (monoclonal antibodies and recombinant antibody constructs). Rolf A. Stabel is senior physician at the Division of Oncology, Department of Medicine and head of the Laboratory of Oncology. University Hospital Ziirich Switzerland. He is associate professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He has authored over 130 research articles, the majority on the development of new therapeutic approaches to lung cancer and on the treatment of malignant lymphomas. in particular high dose chemotherapy. His main research interests developed during his training in medical oncology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, Massachusetts.