During a press conference at the 2013 ASH Annual Meeting, Dr Raymond Wong presents data from a recent multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

Drugs known as monoclonal antibodies, engineered to target disease-harboring proteins on the surface of cells or to block growth signals in the microenvironment, have demonstrated strong efficacy and safety, and have become more common treatments for blood cancers. Given this success, researchers are experimenting with the use of monoclonal antibodies in rare diseases with limited treatment options. One such disease is multicentric Castleman’s disease (MCD), a potentially fatal, incurable disorder with high morbidity believed to be partially mediated by the overproduction of a specific cell signaling molecule known as interleukin-6 (IL-6) that results in the dangerous overgrowth of cells in the lymph nodes.