Summary of Clinical Use

This antibody is in Phase 3 clinical trial for pancreatic cancer (NCT01956812). See [9] and [5] for discussions of Phase 1 trial results.

Mechanism Of Action and Pharmacodynamic Effects

Clivatuzumab tetraxetan is highly specific for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), in comparison to normal pancreas, benign pancreatic lesions, and non-pancreatic cancers [4]. The antibody targets cell surface mucin molecules which are overexpressed in many adenocarcinomas [8,11], including pancreatic adenocarcinoma [1,10,12]. Clivatuzumab tetraxetan binds these molecules on cancer cells, more precisely targeting the radioactive yttrium to the cancerous cells. The antibody is reported to bind to an epitope on mucin-1 (MUC1; P15941) by immunohistochemistry [4] and mucin 5AC (MUC5AC; P98088) [2,7], but may also bind the same epitope structure if it is present in other mucin species.