Tumor immunoscintigraphy by means of radiolabeled monoclonal antibodies: multicenter studies of the Italian National Research Council--Special Project "Biomedical Engineering".

Four radioimmunopharmaceuticals (99mTc- and 111In-labeled anti-melanoma and 111In- and 131I-labeled anti-carcinoembryonic antigen F(ab')2 fragments derived from monoclonal antibodies 225.28S and F023C5) were developed by means of a collaborative effort coordinated by the Italian National Research Council, Special Project "Biomedical Engineering." After appropriate pilot studies, the radioimmunopharmaceuticals, prepared by Sorin Biomedica (Saluggia, Italy), were distributed to 31 Nuclear Medicine departments in Italy and in 10 other European countries within the framework of three immunoscintigraphy multicenter studies. A total of 1245 patients were studied, 898 of whom carried 1725 documented tumor lesions; 1596 of 2193 tumor lesions (468 of which were previously unknown) were imaged by immunoscintigraphy in 785 of 990 lesion-bearing patients. Among the occult lesions, 173 were imaged in 92 patients admitted to the study as lesion-free patients. The results have been analyzed in terms of the reliability, reproducibility, and diagnostic usefulness of the method and of each immunoradiopharmaceutical.