ABSTRACT
Although numerous monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have been developed against antigens associated with tumor cells, few of these antibodies are tumor-specific. Thus, binding of these mAbs to tissues from a patient will not necessarily indicate the presence or location of a tumor. However, because tumors often appear to be monoclonal in origin (develop from a single cell that has undergone a malignant event) and to have characteristics of the cell of origin, mAbs to antigens associated with particular differentiation states can be used to classify the origin of the tumor and the stage in normal cell differentiation most similar to that of the tumor cell (Section N2). One of the most prominent uses of this approach is in the subgrouping of leukemias (Figure 1).
