Clinical applications of monoclonal antibodies in gynecologic oncology.

The advances of both murine and human monoclonal antibody (MoAb) technology have allowed the development of several antibodies against gynecologic tumors. The goals are to produce effective and specific reagents for both immunodiagnosis and therapy. However, despite an extensive research effort, a clear demonstration of specific cancer-associated antigens in gynecologic malignancies, or of specific immune responses to such antigens has been elusive. Currently, most antibodies found are cross reactive with either oncofetal antigens or some normal adult tissues. Clinical usefulness of these MoAbs as a screening test in radioimaging or in immunotherapy remains to be proven. However, the use of MoAb technology in defined antigens/tumor markers such as beta-human chorionic gonadotropin, and alpha fetal proteins has provided convenient, reproducible and highly specific reagents. More recently, promising antibodies have been shown to detect tumor antigens in serum of patients with ovarian cancer.