Use of Panels of Monoclonal Antibodies in the Differential Diagnosis of Neuroblastoma and Lymphoblastic Disorders

Histological, cytological and immunological analyses are complementary for the detection of neuroblastoma cells in bone marrow

“…In our limited experience, analysis of these smears did not add useful observation to the diagnosis made on trephines and/or aspirates. Several authors have attempted to improve the detection rate of BM invasion by immunological methods (Reynolds et al, 1982;Kemshead et al, 1983), and our study also demonstrates that immunological analysis improves cytological diagnosis since the immunological findings were pathological in 9 cases of positive biopsies with negative aspirates. In addition, as described for 11 cases in this study, immunological staining may detect neuroblastoma cells which are not yet recognizable by traditional cytological or histological criteria.…”

“…These transplants can be freed of malignant cells (purging) when required by detection of minimal residual disease. Neuroblastoma is a disease with focal BM involvement and multiple biopsies would be more appropriate than aspirates for detecting low levels of tumour cells (Franklin & Pritchard, 1983;Bostrom et al, 1985 which selectively bind to cells of neuroectodermal origin have also been developed (Reynolds et al, 1982;Kemshead et al, 1983;Allan et al, 1983;Donner et al, 1985). Two of these antibodies were used in an indirect immunofluorescence assay to confirm and extend the detection of neuroblastoma cells in suspensions of BM cells.…”

Magnetic microspheres and monoclonal antibodies for the depletion of neuroblastoma cells from bone marrow: Experiences, improvements and observations

“…The modifications described here represent considerable improvements over the original method, economising on reagents, the time involved in the procedure, and allowing a completely disposable system to be used for the magnetic separation chambers. The indirect approach to depleting tumour cells from bone marrow allows for the saturation of antigen binding sites on malignant cells, and attempts to overcome the problem of antigen heterogeneity known to occur in tumour cells (Kemshead et al, 1983).…”

Monoclonal antibody 3F8 recognises the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) in addition to the ganglioside GD2

“…The HNK-1 determinant is present on only 15-20% of all NCAM molecules (Kruse et al, 1984). The epitopes recognised by monoclonal antibodies 3F8 and HNK-1 are different since, in an international workshop on neuroblastoma, there was considerable difference in the staining profiles of the two antibodies (Kemshead, 1988). Furthermore, the HNK-1 epitope differs from that recognised by 3F8 in that it has been reported as not involving neuraminic acid (Chou et al, 1985).…”

“…We became particularly interested in the expression of GD2 as detected by monoclonal antibody 3F8, when it became apparent that the staining pattern of the antibody was similar to monoclonal antibodies UJ13A and 5.1.H11 (Kemshead, 1988) recently identified as binding to the neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) (Patel et al, 1989a, b). In fact, a variety of monoclonal antibodies to GD2 have been shown to interfere with neuroblastoma and melanoma cell attachment to various substrate adhesive proteins (Cheresh et al, 1986).…”