Antibody-drug conjugate shows preclinical efficacy

A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 11) on May 20, 2024, entitled, “Entering the golden age for antibody-drug conjugates in gynecologic cancer.”

In this new editorial, researchers Michelle Greenman, Blair McNamara, Levent Mutlu, and Alessandro D. Santin from Yale University School of Medicine discuss gynecologic cancers. Biologically aggressive tumors such as uterine serous carcinoma (USC) and carcinosarcoma (CS) are aggressive subtypes of endometrial cancer with a poor prognosis and a disproportionately high mortality rate. 

“Cytoreductive surgery along with chemotherapy is critical in treatment.”

However, recurrence is common, requiring multiple lines and combinations of chemotherapy. Use of immunotherapy in combination with gold standard chemotherapy regimens and targeted drugs represent novel modalities in treatment endowed with a remarkable potential in endometrial cancer patients. In a recent publication, entitled “In Vivo and In Vitro Efficacy of Trastuzumab Deruxtecan in Uterine Serous Carcinoma” the researchers evaluated trastuzumab-deruxtecan (T-DXd), a HER2-directed antibody drug conjugate (ADC) against biologically aggressive uterine tumors.

“We demonstrated for the first time the remarkable preclinical activity of T-DXd against primary USC cells lines as well as USC xenografts overexpressing HER2/neu.”