Improved immunoscintigraphy by subcutaneous injection of sup(99m)Tc or 111In labelled F(ab')2 fragments of an anti-melanoma monoclonal antibody

Technetium-99m and/or 111In labelled F(ab')2 fragments of a melanoma associated MoAb 225.28S were injected i.v. in 80 patients affected by stage I to IV malignant melanoma. 75% of metastatic lesions already documented by other methods were detected by immunoscintigraphy, which was also capable of detecting a certain number of unknown metastases. The authors observed a lower percentage of positive scans in liver, lung and skin because of the poor tumour to background ratio. In some patients, subcutaneous (s.c.) injection allowed visualization documented metastases undetected by i.v. administration. An equal amount on non-specific F(ab')2 fragments (MoAb 4C4) injected s.c. as a negative control showed no positive scans. Clinical studies and chromatographic patterns of patient serum samples suggest that the s.c. route of administration offers, with respect to the the i.v. route, the advantage of reducing vascular background and aspecific accumulation in liver, probably because of retention of possible contaminants by the lymphatic system. (author)