Tumour-associated monoclonal antibodies for the diagnosis and assessment of ovarian cancer.

Summary. A tumour-associated radiolabelled monoclonal antibody (HMFG 2) was used to investigate 51 patients who were referred with a pelvic mass and suspected ovarian cancer or recurrent disease. The day before operation the 123I-labelled antibody was injected and the patients then underwent radioimmunoscintigraphy immediately and again 4 and 22 h after the injection. An exploratory laparotomy with appropriate surgery was then performed and the tumours were staged. Tumours were positively imaged 3 min-22 h after injection in all the patients with ovarian cancer, with a mean 0.6% of the injected antibody taken up by the tumour. The presence of HMFG antigen on the tumour was confirmed by immunoperoxidase staining of the surgically-removed tissues. Of the 51 patients, 39 proved to have ovarian cancer. The accuracy of diagnosis and detection of primary and metastatic malignant disease was 95% when correlating pre-operative radioimmune scan findings and laparotomy findings. The procedure is minimally invasive, apparently without side-effects and offers information for tumour detection as an adjunct or alternative to existing methods.