Human monoclonal anti-idiotypic antibodies as an epitope vaccine against pancreatic carcinoma.

During therapeutic repetitive application of MAb BW 494 in pancreatic carcinoma patients, a human IgG anti MAb BW 494 response arose, which was analyzed on the B cell clonal level as well as in the serum of these patients 2-4 months after treatment. From 5 investigated patients 3 developed a polyclonal human IgG anti-idiotypic response in the serum and had B cells with the same specificity which could be immortalized by EBV transformation. Two out of 5 patients showed an anti-idiotypic and anti-isotypic polyclonal response which could be found on the B cell clonal level as well. The data indicated that the human IgG anti MAb BW 494 response was mainly anti-idiotypic.