Diagnostic specificity of the monoclonal anti-CALLA antibody VIL-A1 in leukemia and malignant lymphoma.

VIL-A1 is an anti-CALLA antibody which binds efficiently and exclusively to CALLA positive cells. When the cell type specificity of VIL-A1 is studied in acute leukemias and lymphomas, results show that in those leukemias which could be characterized by cytochemical and morphological methods, VIL-A1 reactivity was specific for cells of lymphoid origin. It can therefore be assumed that VIL-A1 positive AUL cells (in this case 4 out of 9 patients) are also lymphoid in origin. In no case were AML blasts found to be positive with this antibody. Seventy-four per cent of the 88 ALL patients were positive (L1 + L2) whereas none in the L3 subgroup were positive, and 48% of CML patients in blastic crisis were positive. Of the low grade non-Hodgkin malignancies, only CB/CC was positive, distinguishing it from the CC type which was negative. Of the high grade lymphomas IB was found to be negative, while the others showed a heterogeneous picture which was not related to other immunological parameters.