IMMUNOCYTOCHEMICAL DETERMINATION OF EGFR, OV-632 AND OC-125 IN PRIMARY OVARIAN-CANCER PATIENTS

An immunocytochemistry study was performed to compare the immunoreacti vity of the monoclonal antibodies OC 125, EGFR and OV 632 with smear i mprints from 60 ovarian tumours (21 serous cystadenocarcinomas, 12 muc inous cystadenocarcinomas, 9 endometrioid carcinomas, 5 clear cell car cinomas and 5 mixed tumours). Twenty-six patients were premenopausal a nd 34 postmenopausal. The results showed that 75% of mucinous cystaden ocarcinomas were negative for all 3 antigens as were 2 of the 5 (40%) clear cell carcinomas. All other tumours were positive for at least on e of the three antigens. OV 632 had an overall sensitivity of 73.3%, E GFR 55% and OC 125 46.6%. Four tumours were OC 125-positive and OV 632 -negative. There was no significant difference in positivity of OV 632 , OC 125 and EGFR, between pre- and postmenopausal patients (chi(2) = 0.03) or between tumours of stage I and stage III [chi(2) = 0.075 (EGF R) 0.95 (OV 632) and 10.49 (OC 125)]. OV 632 was conducted to be the m ost sensitive antibody in all types of tumours but OC 125, while less sensitive by itself, increased the overall sensitivity in combination with OV 632 from 73.3 to 80% (not statistically significant).