Are individualized antibodies on the horizon for cancer treatment? Elizabeth Tracey reports

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So-called ‘bispecific antibodies,’ are racking up some impressive results when it comes to treating certain cancers, recent studies show. William Nelson, director of the Kimmel Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins says making individualized antibodies for cancer treatment as well as using them earlier in treatment is still a ways off.

Nelson: The notion that you can build an antibody selective for something on cancer has been around ever since we recognized that you can make selective antibodies. You need to have enough of what the antibody recognizes on the surface, there’s sort of a critical amount that’s needed for the antibody to bind in a sufficient quantity to be effective. Is there going to be something that targets a specific mutant on the surface of a cell? Antibodies recognize things on the surface of a cell. That may be harder and they may not be present in the right quantity. But there’s going to be more of these stories.  :32

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.