Phase I clinical trial of the immunocytokine EMD 273063 in melanoma patients.

Purpose: To evaluate the safety, toxicity, in vivo immunologic activation, and maximum-tolerated dose (MTD) of EMD 273063 (hu14.18-IL-2) in patients with metastatic melanoma.

Patients And Methods: Thirty-three patients were treated with EMD 273063, a humanized anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody (mAb) linked to interleukin-2 (IL-2).

NXS2 murine neuroblastomas express increased levels of MHC class I antigens upon recurrence following NK-dependent immunotherapy.

We evaluated recurrent NXS2 neuroblastoma tumors that developed following NK- or T-cell-mediated immunotherapy in tumor-bearing mice. Recurrent tumors developed following an NK-dependent antitumor response using a suboptimal dose of hu14.18-IL2, a humanized IL-2 immunocytokine targeted to the GD(2)-ganglioside.