title: Tumor-associated antigens in bilateral breast cancer.
abstract: The purpose of our present study is to determine whether monoclonal antibodies can define an antigenic phenotype which expresses itself in a concordant fashion in synchronous bilateral breast cancer. The monoclonal antibodies DF.3 and B72.3 were reacted (ABC immunoperoxidase) with formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections of bilateral synchronous breast cancers from 19 patients. MAb DF.3 demonstrated a P less than .01 correlation of right-sided vs left-sided reactivity. This suggested that MAb DF.3 could be used as a biologic marker for synchronous bilateral breast cancer. We hypothesized that the majority of clinically asynchronous breast cancers are really biologically synchronous. We used the immunoperoxidase technique in a similar fashion on bilateral metachronous tumors in 17 patients. DF.3 antigen expression correlated (right to left side) at P less than .01 value. This data, supported by previous information, suggests that the term "metachronous" breast cancer is a clinically arbitrary definition but that biologically most "metachronous" cancers may well be synchronous.
mesh_terms: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology*; D000939:Epitopes / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D008875:Middle Aged; D009378:Neoplasms, Multiple Primary / Q000276:immunology*; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D000939:Epitopes