Assessment of bone marrow infiltration in B-cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL).

A study is currently in progress at St Bartholomew's Hospital in which patients with B-cell lymphoma receive cyclophosphamide and total body irradiation supported by autologous bone marrow transplantation. The marrow is being treated in vitro with the monoclonal antibody anti-B1 (Coulter Immunology) and baby rabbit complement (PelFreez) before re-infusion (Rohatiner et al., 1986). Anti-B1 is an antibody that defines a 35 kDa B-cell differentiation antigen (CD20) which is expressed on more than 95% of normal B-cells isolated from peripheral blood