Evaluation of monoclonal antibodies for the detection of exfoliative nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells

• Published in: International Journal of Cancer
• Main Authors: Chan, K. H., Yip, T. C., Choy, Damon, Chan, C. W., Zeng, Y., Ng, M. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1987
• Subjects: eskimo*
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ijc.2910390406; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fijc.2910390406; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ijc.2910390406

Abstract Exfoliative cells were aspirated from 15 patients suspected of having nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and showing the presence of lesions or other abnormalities in the nasopharynx. They were tested for binding with a 125 I monoclonal antibody (MAb) (MA6) which is selectively reactive against human B lymphocytes and a variety of carcinomas. A positive result was obtained from 6/9 patients with, and from 0/5 patients without, histologically confirmed disease. One patient with eskimoma also gave a negative binding result. Cytology was specific but less sensitive, tumour cells being detected in 3 of the patients with confirmed disease. Immunocytology using MA6 was limited, like cytology, by poor recovery of the tumour cells and the results were in complete concordance with cytology. The other MAbs used were raised against carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and a carcinoma cell line (Ca2), respectively. The latter was not reactive against the NPC tumour cells while the CEA antibody was not sufficiently selective to be useful.