Antibody - Drug Conjugates as a Novel Therapeutic Modality to Treat Recurrent Refractory Germ Cell Tumors.

This review provides a rationale for using the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - approved antibody - drug conjugates (ADCs) for implementing as therapy in recurrent refractory germ cell tumors (rrGCTs) similar to their position in the treatment of other types of chemoresistant solid tumors. GCTs originate from germ cells, they most frequently develop in ovaries or in the testes, whilst being the most common type of malignancy in young men. GCTs are very sensitive to cisplatin - based chemotherapy, but therapeutic resistance occurs in considerable number of cases, which is associated with disease recurrence and poor patient prognosis. ADCs are a novel type of targeted antitumor agents that combine tumor antigen-specific monoclonal antibodies with chemically linked chemotherapeutic drug (payload) exerting a cytotoxic effect. Several FDA - approved ADCs use as targeting moieties the antigens that are also detected in the GCTs, offering a benefit of this type of the targeted therapy even for refractory relapsing TGCT patients unresponsive to standard chemotherapy.