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Background. The prognosis for colorectal cancer patients is related closely to the extent of tumor at the time of diagnosis, and early detection of metastatic or recurrent disease is an important prerequisite for successful treatment. Radioimmunodetection is a relatively new technique to image colorectal cancer using radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies (MoAb). The goal of this study was to evaluate the clinical use of radioimmunodetection with the anticarcinoembryonic antigen MoAb FO23C5, radiolabelled with 131 I, in patients submitted to surgery for colorectal cancer and with suspected local recurrences

The monoclonal antibody (MAb) b12 raised against human breast cancer cell lines was found to identify an epitope of a mucinous-like carcinoma associated antigen (MCA) that is strongly represented on breast tumor cells. The b12 MAb was used to develop an enzyme immunoassay (EIA) kit. MCA levels were measured with the EIA method in the cytosol of both breast cancer and normal breast tissue as well as in the blood of 147 patients with primary breast cancer and 92 healthy subjects. MCA cytosol levels were significantly higher in carcinoma than in normal breast tissue cytosol samples. Higher MCA levels were found in the cytosol of tumor without lymph nodal involvement. The 95th percentile of the MCA value distribution in the healthy control group (11.0 U/ml) was chosen as negative/positive cut-off level. The overall positivity rate in breast cancer group was 26.5% with MCA showing a trend toward higher levels in patients with more advanced disease. Significantly higher levels were found in patients with a higher number of positive lymph nodes.