Antigen and Antibody Molecular Engineering in Breast Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Today, advances in the area of immunology and breast cancer are made at an increasing rate, yielding an amount of information that can become unwieldy. The opportunity for scientists in this area of research to gather together to exchange results and working hypotheses represents, in my belief, a very attractive proposition. With this in mind, these workshops have been convened with two year intervals for the last ten years. In each of them, selected topics have been highlighted. The present workshop underscores the large advancements made in the molecular biology of both breast cancer associated antigens and their corresponding antibodies. Understanding the genetic information for the expression of these antigens has been recently advanced leading to preparation of molecularly engineered reagents for use in vaccination, serum assays, and immunizations for novel antibody production. In the anti-breast cancer antibody field the availability of molecular engineering approaches to humanize murine antibodies has induced intense interest in the creation of less immunogenic antibody forms that are now available for clinical testing. Clinical studies using anti-breast murine antibody continue to be carried out and are presented at this meeting establishing a base line for safety and efficaciousness in imaging and immunotherapy that it is hoped will be superseded by the humanized forms. Basic immunology and immunochemistry studies in breast cancer are also included in this workshop that demonstrate the fast pace at which this research is advancing in many laboratories worldwide.

Springer Book Archives

Session I.- Breast Mucin and Associated Antigens in Diagnosis and Therapy.- Peptide Epitopes in Breast Cancer Mucins.- Does a Novel Form of the Breast Cancer Marker Protein, MUC1, Act as a Receptor Molecule that Modulates Signal Transduction?.- Cancer Metastasis Determined by Carbohydrate-Mediated Cell Adhesion.- Experimental Immunotherapy of Breast Cancer Using Alpha Interferon Conjugated to Monoclonal Antibody Mc5.- Circulating and Tissue Markers in the Longitudinal Management of Breast Cancer Patients.- Session II.- Engineering of Antibodies for Breast Cancer Therapy: Construction of Chimeric and Humanized Versions of the Murine Monoclonal Antibody BrE-3.- Humanization of an Anti-Mucin Antibody for Breast and Ovarian Cancer Therapy.- Towards an Immunotherapy for p185HER2 Overexpressing Tumors.- Session III.- Branching N-Linked Oligosaccharides in Breast Cancer.- Specificity of the IgG Response in Mice and Human Breast Cancer Patients Following Immunization Against Synthetic Sialyl-Tn, an Epitope with Possible Functional Significance in Metastasis.- Vaccination Against Breast Cancer - Studies in an Animal Model.- Anti-Idiotype Antibodies as Potential Therapeutic Agents for Human Breast Cancer.- The Simultaneous Expression of c-erbB-2 Oncoprotein and Laminin Receptor on Primary Breast Tumors has a Predicting Potential Analogous to that of the Lymph Node Status.- Multivariate Prognostic Model for Infiltrating Ductal Carcinoma of the Breast in the Axillary Node-Free Patient.- The Use of Monoclonal Antibody Immunoconjugates in Cancer Therapy.- Radioimmunolocalization of Breast Cancer Using BrE-3 Monoclonal Antibody.- Suppression of Human Anti-Mouse Antibody Response to Murine Monoclonal Antibody L6 by Deoxyspergualin: A Phase I Study.- Overview of Radioimmunotherapy in Advanced Breast Cancer Using 1-131 Chimeric L6.- Contributors.