Treatment parameters modulating regression of human melanoma xenografts by an antibody-drug conjugate (CR011-vcMMAE) targeting GPNMB.

Purpose: To investigate the pharmacological properties of the CR011-vcMMAE fully human antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), such as dose titrations, quantitation of the time (days) to complete regression, pharmacokinetics, and schedule dependency. Our prior study characterized a fully human antibody to GPNMB covalently linked to monomethylauristatin E, CR011-vcMMAE, and further demonstrated cell surface staining of melanoma lines susceptible to the immunoconjugate's cytotoxicity (Clin Cancer Res 2005; 12(4): 1373-1382).

Methods: The human SK-MEL-2 and SK-MEL-5 melanoma xenografts were used in athymic mice to assess anti-tumor efficacy.