Immunological Approaches to the Diagnosis and Therapy of Breast Cancer

Once again we have gathered to discover and evaluate advances made in our ability to understand. diagnose and possibly treat breast cancer with the new reagents provided by monoclonal antibody techniques. In the last two years since our first International Workshop on Monoclonal Antibodies and Breast Cancer there has been an enormous surge in the number and quality of applications for these new reagents. Solid achievements have been made in identification and quantitation of estrogen and progesterone receptors. in histopathological diagnostic procedures. in serum diagnosis. and we are witnessing now the first attempts to treat breast cancer with immunoconjugates. Cytosolic estrogen receptors can now be quantitated with monoclonal antibodies. and also their cellular distribution can be directly assessed histologically. In addition. monoclonal antibodies to progesterone receptors have been generated that show promise in having similar uses as those to the estrogen receptor. In the field of diagnosis. the use of monoclonal antibodies has permitted the development of serological approaches for early diagnosis by identifying and measuring breast epithelial antigens in serum. and of histological approaches for establishing criteria for breast cancer dissemination and prognosis. With great expectations we are all following developments in the area of breast cancer treatment using conjugates of anti-breast epithelial monoclonal antibodies which are now confirming earlier reports in affecting breast tumor control. The recent creation of newer monoclonal antibodies and conjugates await experimentation and clinical trials to determine their value.