Nimotuzumab

Treatment of glioma.

Intravenous Malignant glioma Adult: 200 mg wkly as continuous IV infusion w/in 60 min in combination w/ radiation treatment of 2 Gy once daily, 5 days/wk to a total dose of 50-60 Gy for 6 wk.

Intravenous Malignant glioma Child: As monotherapy in 2 consecutive phases. Induction phase: 150 mg/m2 BSA wkly for 6 wk. After induction phase, patients w/o progressive disease upon 8th-wk evaluation will be treated in the consolidation phase, where it is given 150 mg/m2 BSA every 3 wk until disease progression. Administer via continuous IV infusion w/in 30 min.

Hypersensitivity. Pregnancy and lactation.

Patients w/ chronic diseases in decompensate phase (e.g. cardiac dysfunction, DM, arterial HTN or history of severe allergic reaction). Patients previously treated w/ the murine monoclonal antibody ior EGF/r3.

C

Chills, pyrexia, fatigue, asthenia, headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, loose stools, tremors, pruritus, rash, HTN and fluctuation in BP. Rarely, myalgia, somnolence, disorientation, haematuria and elevated liver enzymes.

Nimotuzumab is a humanised monoclonal antibody which requires bivalent binding for stable attachment to the cell surface. It is therefore bound selectively to cells w/ high levels of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression. Nimotuzumab inhibits epidermal growth factor (EGF) binding and tumour cell growth.