W.D. Skodler

Radioimmunoscintigraphy Using Monoclonal Antibodies before Second-Look Surgery in Patients Suffering from Ovarian Cancer

19 patients with a known history of ovarian cancer were investigated by radioimmunoscintigraphy (RIS) to look for recurrent disease a few days before second-look surgery. The tumor-associated monoclonal antibody HMFG-2 (400 micrograms/patient) was injected intravenously after labeling with radioactive 123I (0.5-2.2 mCi/patient). Scans were reviewed for activity accumulations due to uptake of the tumor-associated antibody by tumor sites. In 15 out of the 19 cases the scan results correlated with the intraoperative findings. There were 2 false-positive and 2 false-negative scans, the latter in patients with subclinical disease. The smallest lesion detected by radioimmunoscintigraphy had a diameter of 1.5 cm. In 3 patients, tumor sites were identified that had been missed by all other routinely performed methods of investigation including transmission computed tomography. These data indicate that RIS is of considerable clinical value in the early detection and localization of recurrent ovarian cancer and may, therefore, improve the management of these patients.

Ultrasonic Doppler flow studies of the uterine arteries in women with cervix cancer.

The main characteristic of malignant tumors is their capacity for local destructive spread as well as infiltration into the adjacent tissue. The present study was carried out to evaluate the hemodynamic alterations in patients with advanced cervix cancer. Data of 34 patients with cervix cancer are compared to 30 healthy women with normal history. The mean pulsatility index (PI) was significantly lower in cancer patients (PI = 1.75 +/- 1.27) than in controls (PI = 3.18 +/- 0.99). Use of noninvasive Doppler ultrasound study physiology of uterine hemodynamics in patients with cervix cancer is of great clinical relevance and paves the way for further investigations in screening programs for cervix cancer.

Uteroplacental Blood Flow Measurement Using Radioisotopes in Small Placentas

In 25 pregnant females with a placental weight below the 20th percentile uteroplacental blood flow measurements using 113mIn-transferrin were performed in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy. Twelve patients with pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH) were compared to 13 females with normal blood pressures. The results of uteroplacental blood flow measurements showed normal flow patterns in only 6 of the 25 subjects and were significantly worse in the group with PIH. Babies of patients with PIH had a mean birth weight of 1,100 g at a mean gestational age of 34.2 weeks versus 1,752 g and 37.4 weeks for newborns without PIH. Perinatal mortality was significantly higher in the PIH group. In combination with a small placenta PIH compounds the fetal risk.