Researchers have discovered a unique monoclonal antibody
that can effectively reach inside a cancer cell, a key goal for these important
anticancer agents, since most proteins that cause cancer or are associated with
cancer are buried inside cancer cells. Scientists from Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center and Eureka Therapeutics have collaborated to create the new human
monoclonal antibody, which targets a protein associated with many types of
cancer and is of great interest to cancer researchers.
Unlike other human therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, which
can target only proteins that remain on the outside of cancer cells, the new
monoclonal antibody, called ESK1, targets a protein that resides on the inside
of the cell.