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Lymphatic spread is an important clinical determinant in the prognosis of many human cancers. The lymphangiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor‐D (VEGF‐D) is implicated in the promotion of lymphatic metastasis through the development of lymphatic vessels in some human cancers. In this study, we developed an anti‐VEGF‐D monoclonal antibody, cVE199, and investigated its in vitro properties, in vivo effects against tumors and possible target indications to evaluate its potential as a therapeutic antibody. The cVE199 molecule was revealed to have a specific binding reactivity against human VEGF‐D, as well as a specific inhibitory activity against the binding of human VEGF‐D to VEGFR‐3. In addition, cVE199 was found to inhibit the biological activity of VEGF‐D against lymphatic cells in vitro. Because we determined that a neuroblastoma cell line, SK‐N‐DZ, abundantly expressed VEGF‐D, an in vivo efficacy study was performed using a xenograft model of SK‐N‐DZ. We found that cVE199 significantly decreased lymphatic metastasis of SK‐N‐DZ as well as lymphangiogenesis in primary lesions. Finally, we investigated VEGF‐D expression in human neuroblastoma, finding that the molecule was expressed in 11 of 29 human neuroblastoma specimens (37.9%). In conclusion, we found that a novel anti‐VEGF‐D monoclonal antibody, cVE199, with specific reactivity against human VEGF‐D, prevents lymphatic metastasis of neuroblastoma through the inhibition of lymphangiogenesis in an animal model. In addition, our results show that VEGF‐D is expressed in some cases of human neuroblastomas, which suggests that cVE199 is a potential anti‐metastasis therapeutic antibody in neuroblastoma treatment.