Radioimaging of human malignant gliomas using indium-labelled monoclonal antibodies

A monoclonal antibody (MUC 2-63) was raised against a neuroectodermal antigen expressed on human malignant gliomas, neuroblastomas and melanomas. The mouse monoclonal antibody MUC 2-63 was of IgG1 isotype, it binds the antigenic determinants with the molecular weight of 32,000 Dalton present on the cell surface of native glioma cells. Seven patients with brain tumours, five with biopsy proven malignant gliomas, received an intravenous injection of the 111In-DTPA coupled monoclonal antibody MUC 2-63. Six patients had an uptake of 0.01-0.04% of the injected dose at the site of the tumour, which correlated to the computerized tomography (CT) images. The half-lives in the tumours of 111In were 38-259 h. The maximal uptake in the tumours were noticed between 40 and 67 h. One patient failed to demonstrate any intracranial uptake of the radioactivity. This patient had been treated with surgery and radiotherapy for a stage 2 testicular seminoma four years ago. He recently developed clinical signs of a primary brain tumour and the CT diagnosis was malignant glioma. All patients had nonspecific uptake in the liver, half-lives were between 60 and 84 h, the corresponding maximal uptake was detected between 22 and 45 h. No side effects were observed by administration of the mouse monoclonal antibody MUC 2-63.