Efficacy of Monoclonal Antibody 131I-B72.3 Immunoscintigraphy of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Xenografts in Nude Mice

• Published in: The European journal of surgery Vol. 165; no. 7; pp. 659 - 664
• Main Author: Lars W. Kaufmann, Jean C. Vaillant, Thomas M. van Gulik, Erik A. van Royen, Rene Parc, Hugo Obertop
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Informa UK Ltd 21.07.1999
• ISSN: 1102-4151; 1741-9271
• DOI: 10.3109/11024159950189717

Objective: To assess the efficacy of monoclonal antibody (MoAb) B72.3 for in vivo-immunoscintigraphy of pancreatic carcinoma in nude mice. Design: Experimental controlled animal study. Setting: University hospital, The Netherlands. Subjects: 11 nude mice with subcutaneously xenografted human pancreatic carcinoma. Interventions: Specific MoAb B72.3 and non-specific MoAb MOPC21 were iodinated with 131I and injected intraperitoneally in nude mice. Scintigrams were taken on days 1-10 and tumour:non-tumour ratios of the regions of interest (tumour, thorax, abdomen, background) were calculated. The mice were then killed for in vitro tissue counts. Main outcome measures: tumour:non-tumour ratios in vivo and in vitro. Results: Results of immunoscintigraphy on days 1, 2, and 6 were compared. In the B72.3-group all ratios were only moderately raised, the tumour:background ratio being the highest (2.35 (SD 0.67)) on day 6. There were no obvious differences between the ratios of the B72.3-group and the MOPC21-group. The results of tissue counts done at the end of the study, showed that tumour:non-tumour ratios were twice as high in the B72.3-group, suggesting some specificity of this MoAb. Conclusion: The results of our study suggest that MoAb B72.3 is not powerful enough for in vivo detection of pancreatic cancer as assessed in this xenograft model in nude mice.