Principles of the therapeutic use of monoclonal antibodies in oncology

Monoclonal antibodies have reached the stage of therapeutic agents, mostly ill oncology, as illustrated by their wide use ill lymphoma, breast cancer or colorectal cancer. The unravelling of their mechanisms of action and their interactions with their cellular receptors allows us to engineer new classes of therapeutic antibodies with increased efficacy. The identification of some of the tumour escape mechanisms may also help to define new approaches for patient selection and immunomonitoring. The present review addresses these various aspects.