Effects of Diagnostic Application of Monoclonal Antibody on Survival in Melanoma Patients

Follow-up data of more than 300 melanoma patients were reviewed in which an immunoscintigraphy study had been performed as part of a routine staging protocol. All patients had received a commercially available 99mTc-labeled F(ab′)2 fragment specific to a high-molecular-weight melanoma-associated antigen (HMW-MAA). Survival data of patients that had received one injection (group I) were compared with those receiving two or more injections (group II). For better comparison, patients were matched according to the following risk factors: (i) age, (ii) sex, (iii) tumor level according to Clark, (iv) tumor depth according to Breslow, (v) location of primary tumor, and (vi) metastases [and if positive, (vii) location of metastases]. Twenty-eight patient pairs were established that showed no statistically significant differences comparing the above-mentioned risk factors. In addition, no significant difference was found comparing the interval between primary diagnosis of disease and first injection of monoclonal ...