Purpose: Antibody treatment is considered tolerable and potentially effective in the therapy of neuroblastoma. We have analyzed stage 4 neuroblastoma patients older than 1 year who underwent consolidation treatment with the chimeric monoclonal anti-GD2-antibody ch14.18.
Patients and methods: Stage 4 patients older than 1 year who completed initial treatment without event were eligible. ch14.18 was scheduled in a dose of 20 mg/m2/d during 5 days in six cycles every 2 months. Patients who did not receive ch14.18 served as controls.
Results: Of 334 assessable patients, 166 received ch14.18, 99 received a 12-month low-dose maintenance chemotherapy (MT) instead, and 69 had no additional treatment. During 695 ch14.18 cycles, fever (55% of cycles), abnormal C-reactive protein without infection (35%), cough (24%), rash (22%), and pain (16%) were the main side effects. Univariate analysis found similar event-free survival (EFS) for the three groups (3-year EFS, 46.5% +/- 4.1%, 44.4% +/- 4.9%, 37.1% +/- 5.9% for patients treated with antibody ch14.18, MT, and no additional therapy, respectively; log-rank test, P =.314). For overall survival (OS), ch14.18 treatment (3-year OS, 68.5% +/- 3.9%) was superior to MT (3-year OS, 56.6% +/- 5.0%) or no additional therapy (3-year OS, 46.8% +/- 6.2%; log-rank test, P =.018). Separate univariate analysis of patients with autologous stem-cell transplantation revealed no difference between patients with ch14.18 treatment and no additional consolidation. Multivariate analysis failed to demonstrate an advantage of antibody treatment for EFS and OS.
Conclusion: Consolidation treatment of stage 4 neuroblastoma with ch14.18 was associated with considerable but manageable side effects. Compared with oral maintenance chemotherapy and no consolidation treatment, ch14.18 had no clear impact on the outcome of patients.