Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen in bladder cancer tissues detected by monoclonal antibody.

Monoclonal antibodies against Thomsen-Friedenreich antigen (T-Ag) were obtained by the hybridoma technique. The expression of T-Ag in 73 specimens of bladder cancer was examined by the immunofluorescence method using these monoclonal antibodies. Seventeen (53%) of grade I, 18 (44%) of grade II and 5 (50%) of grade III were diffusely stained with anti-T. Of the T-negative tumors, 14 (44%) of grade I and 13 (32%) of grade II showed positive staining after neuraminidase treatment (cryptic T-positive) while only 1 (10%) of grade III was cryptic T-positive. On the contrary, only 1 case (3%) of grade I was cryptic T-negative while 10 (24%) of grade II and 4 (40%) of grade III (were. The T-antigen expression and the histological grades correlated significantly (p less than 0.05). Twenty-eight (70%) of the T-positive cases and 9 (60%) of the cryptic T-negative cases recurred while only 3 (11%) of the cryptic T-positive cases did (p less than 0.01). The monoclonal antibodies were more useful than peanut lectin (PNA) or conventional polyclonal antibodies on the detection of T-antigen.