Premium
Immunohistochemical differentiation of metastases of renal carcinomas versus other carcinomas with anti‐γGT monoclonal antibody 138H11
Author(s) -
KAUFMANN O.,
DIETEL M.,
SCHERBERICH J.E.,
GAEDICKE G.,
FISCHER P.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
histopathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.626
H-Index - 124
eISSN - 1365-2559
pISSN - 0309-0167
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2559.1997.5800813.x
Subject(s) - immunohistochemistry , pathology , monoclonal antibody , renal cell carcinoma , adenocarcinoma , antigen retrieval , carcinoma , clear cell , metastasis , antigen , monoclonal , antibody , medicine , cancer , immunology
Aims : Adenocarcinomas account for about 60% of metastatic cancers of unknown primary (CUP) site. In such a clinical CUP situation, histopathologists are challenged to differentiate renal cell carcinomas (RCC) from other adenocarcinomas with similar immunophenotypes, especially chemotherapeutically treatable mammary and ovarian carcinomas. Methods and results : Recently, we produced a monoclonal antibody (mAb), designated 138H11, against human gamma‐glutamyltransferase (γGT), which stained over 98% primary clear cell and chromophilic RCC on frozen sections. The 138H11 epitope could not be stained using conventional techniques in most paraffin‐embedded sections of the same origin, due to destruction by formalin fixation below the detection level. Here, we demonstrate that mAb 138H11 can specifically stain γGT in paraffin‐embedded primary and metastatic RCC after enhancement with an ultrasensitive immunohistochemical method. We analysed a selected subgroup of adenocarcinomas with immunophenotypes which would not allow a differentiation from RCC in a CUP situation. We found a predominantly membranous expression of the 138H11 target antigen in 26/51 primary RCC and 15/34 metastatic RCC. In contrast, all 43/43 primary ovarian and bronchial carcinomas as well as 54/54 metastases of ovarian, mammary, bronchial and gastric carcinomas were negative for mAb 138H11. Conclusions : The data suggest that mAb 138H11 is useful for the immunohistochemical differentiation of RCC from other metastatic adenocarcinomas if the primary site of the tumour is not known.