The immunodiagnosis of lung cancer with monoclonal antibodies.

Lung cancer is responsible for much suffering and death worldwide. The only hope for cure is therapy applied in an early phase, and all methods of diagnosis should be aimed at this goal. This paper reviews the development of the use of monoclonal antibodies in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Relevant data since the publication of the technology of producing monoclonal antibodies in 1975 to the present are summarized. The authors evaluate the progress of the immunodiagnosis of lung cancer by monoclonal antibodies from pleural effusion, bone marrow, sputum, bronchial lavage, and bronchial brush (immunocytochemistry). They collect recent data on the immunohistochemistry of biopsy materials and of removed tissues. They evaluate radioimmuno-imaging (radioimmuno-scintigraphy) and immuno-PET as in vivo macroscopic diagnostic methods of lung cancer by monoclonal antibodies as well as the help monoclonal antibodies provide in radioimmuno-guided surgery or immunoimage-guided, focally ablative therapy of this disease.