Antibody-drug conjugate therapy links a monoclonal antibody to a cytotoxic drug payload, creating a targeted delivery system for cancer treatment. The antibody component recognizes and binds a specific antigen on tumor cells, causing the cell to internalize the whole conjugate; once inside, the cytotoxic payload is released and destroys the cancer cell, a more precise mechanism than conventional chemotherapy, which affects healthy and diseased cells alike. Several antibody-drug conjugates have reached approval, including brentuximab vedotin for Hodgkin lymphoma and anaplastic large-cell lymphoma in 2011, trastuzumab emtansine for HER2-positive breast cancer in 2013, inotuzumab ozogamicin for relapsed acute lymphoblastic leukemia in 2017, and trastuzumab deruxtecan for advanced HER2-positive breast cancer, with dozens of pharmaceutical companies developing further conjugates as of the late 2010s.
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Antibody-drug conjugates are a class of targeted cancer therapy.
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