[Visualization of malignant tumors in the abdomen using radiolabelled monoclonal antibodies]

The production of monoclonal antibodies by the hybrid technique introduced by Köhler and Milstein in 1975, led to new dimensions in the diagnosis and therapy of malignant diseases. Labelling such monoclonal antibodies, directed against tumour cells, by a radioactive isotope, makes them usable for visualising malignant tumours and their metastases. Early detection of cancer may represent a major step forward in cases where early detection is not possible with common noninvasive methods, such as ovarian cancer in gynaecological oncology. Radioimmunoscintigrams (RIS) were performed in seven patients, all of whom were suspect of having ovarian cancer. The RIS-results showed very good correlations with the operation reports. According to these first results we assume that the RIS method using I123-labelled monoclonal antibodies directed against tumour cells may be successful in the early detection of ovarian cancer. Other important information supplied by radioimmunoscanning is determination of tumour status, localisation, extent or metastatic spread.