Relationships between histology, monoclonal antibody reactivity, and prognosis in breast cancer

Abstract

Infiltrating ductal carcinoma of the breast is histologically heterogeneous and may be subdivided into three main types (A, B, and C) which correlate with the likelihood of long-term survival. Examples of each type were tested against three monoclonal antibodies (H59, H71, and H72) prepared against the breast cancer cell line ZR-75-1. The reaction patterns of type B tumors were significantly different from those of types A and C with antibodies H59 and H71, but not with H72. Thus, the reactivity to these monoclonal antibodies, and presumably the antigen composition of the tumor cells, correlates with the histologic appearances and probability of long-term survival.