In the July 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, NCI scientists published the extremely promising results of a recent Phase I clinical trial for hairy cell leukemia, which accounts for about 2 percent of all leukemias in the United States. BenchMarks recently sat down with three of the leaders of the research team to discuss the results and their implications. They are: Ira Pastan, M.D., chief of NCI's Laboratory of Molecular Biology; David FitzGerald, Ph.D., who heads the Biotherapy Section of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology; and Robert Kreitman, M.D., who heads the Clinical Immunotherapy Section of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology and who directed the clinical trial as principal investigator.

Objectives

I. Assess the therapeutic efficacy and toxicity of the recombinant immunotoxin LMB-2, an anti-Tac murine monoclonal antibody fragment conjugated to a truncated portion of Pseudomonas exotoxin, in patients with Tac-expressing leukemias and lymphomas.