Expression of human milk fat globule antigens HMFG1 and HMFG2 on ovarian tumours and lung tumours.

The patterns of reactivity of the monoclonal antibodies HMFG1 and HMFG2 were studied in epithelial ovarian tumours, small cell lung cancer, and non-small cell lung cancer. Twenty primary, paraffin embedded, ovarian tumours were analysed in addition to freshly obtained ascitic fluids (21), a node aspirate (1), solid metastatic tumours (3), and 6 established cell lines. SCLC tumours comprised paraffin embedded bronchial biopsies (31) and metastatic deposits (7) and fresh tissue from bronchial biopsies (3), pleural aspirates (4), bone marrows (5), node aspirates (6), solid metastatic tumour (3), and 4 cultured cell lines. Antigen expression was heterogeneous for all tumour types studied. However, significant differences in antigen expression were noted with the HMFG2 antibody between primary and metastatic lesions from both ovarian and small cell lung cancer groups.