Development of immunotoxins for potential clinical use in Hodgkin's disease

During the last decade, immunotoxins (ITs) consisting of a cell-binding moiety and a potent toxin were developed as a new class of biological anti-tumor agents. Hodgkin's disease has shown to be one of the best targets for immunotoxins, as lymphocyte activation markers such as CD25 and CD30 are expressed on Hodgkin and Reed-Sternberg (H-RS)-cells in large numbers. Several immunotoxins against these antigens, which are expressed physiologically only on a small subset of activated hematopoietic cells have demonstrated potent anti-tumor effects both, in vitro and in animal models. Here we summarize the experimental and recent clinical data of using ITs in Hodgkin's disease.