From the discovery of monoclonal antibodies to their therapeutic application: an historical reappraisal

Abstract

Vertebrate make billions of different antibodies, each with a binding site that recognizes a specific region of a macromolecule. The hybridoma technique allows monoclonal antibodies, highly specific antibodies produced in the laboratory by a variety of methods. In the last 35 years since the first process for creating monoclonal antibodies was introduced, their application have improved the growing biotechnology industry, but the most important application concerns the therapy of human malignancies.

Keywords: Cancer; History of medicine; Immunology; Monoclonal antibodies; Therapy.