Background: Recombinant antibodies have evolved into successful therapeutics with 10 approved for cancer and more in the pipeline. Four of the top ten cancer therapy drugs are recombinant antibodies.
Objectives: To survey the current state-of-the-art highlighting the reasons for this success and looking ahead to the next generation of antibody therapy.
Methods: An analysis was carried out to identify preclinical and clinical examples and the underlying concepts and mechanisms that have shown how to design better therapies.
Results/conclusions: Greater understanding of the molecular basis of cancer has led to improved antibodies and a greater selection of targets. Fine tuning of successful antibodies through modification of glycosylation, affinity, size and other parameters are paying dividends. Fc-engineering is likely to be predominant in the near future but conjugates, fragments and fusion proteins will continue to be developed and find their place in the arsenal of antibody therapeutics.