Imaging of human melanoma xenografts in nude mice with a radiolabeled monoclonal antibody.

External photoscanning with display of radioactivity data as a color-scaled image detected xenografts of human melanoma in male nude inbred mice of BALB/c background 48 hours after injection of 131I-labeled monoclonal IgG 225.28S that is specific for human melanoma. A 131I-labeled polyclonal goat IgG against human melanoma-associated antigens could also image the tumor, but with this preparation there was considerable localization of radioactivity in normal tissues, resulting in less satisfactory tumor definition. Labeled normal mouse IgG did not image the melanoma grafts. Assay of radioactivity in tissues of melanoma-grafted mice confirmed tumor-specific localization of the antimelanoma antibodies. The tumor:blood ratio of radioactivity was 6.55 with the monoclonal antimelanoma IgG and 0.45 with the polyclonal IgG.