WEDNESDAY, Dec. 18, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- A specially designed antibody shows promise in extending survival for people with high-grade cancers of the brain, one of the most aggressive and deadly forms of cancer.
That's the claim of a study in the December issue of the American Journal of Clinical Oncology.
The published results are from the first 10 years of an ongoing study that started in 1987. It follows 180 people who, after receiving surgery and radiation therapy for their brain tumors, were given injections of a radioiodinated monoclonal antibody called MAb425.
The antibody was developed at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia.
Of the 180 people who received the antibody injections, three with high-grade brain tumors were still alive after five years and longer. In the patients with less aggressive tumors, eight were alive after five years and longer and 50 percent of those patients were alive after 56 months.
Typically, people with lower-grade brain tumors die within 18 to 24 months and people with more aggressive brain tumors usually die within 12 to 18 months.
More information
The U.S. National Cancer Institute has more about brain tumors.
