ABSTRACT

The advent of monoclonal antibody therapy heralded a new era in oncology. In 1997, rituximab became the first monoclonal antibody for the treatment of cancer following its approval for patients with B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The potential risks of any pharmacotherapy should be considered alongside the obvious benefits. Recently, concerns have emerged over the possible increase in infectious complications associated with monoclonal antibodies compared with traditional chemotherapy. Due to the nature of the malignancies that they target, most of the monoclonal antibodies currently in use for the treatment of hematologic cancers are directed at specific surface markers on B or T cells. Consequently, the risk of infectious complications with these monoclonal antibodies is of particular concern and a comprehensive review of these complications is presented in this chapter.