An enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to measure soluble erbB‐2 protein in culture supernatants of various human cell lines and sera of patients suffering from recurrent breast carcinoma. Soluble erbB‐2 protein was demonstrated in culture supernatants of cell lines that expressed high levels of erbB‐2 protein as shown by western blot analysis of cell lysates. Increased levels of the protein, 40‐ to 190‐fold higher than in healthy controls, were demonstrated in sera of 3 out of 12 patients with breast carcinomas. On immunohistological study of tumor tissues from 9 patients, high immune reaction with the anti‐erbB‐2 protein antibody was observed in 2 cases. These were two of the three patients who had elevated levels of erbB‐2 protein in serum (a sample was not available from the third patient). These results raise the possibility that soluble erbB‐2 protein level in serum can be used as an indicator for spread of carcinomas that overexpress erbB‐2 protein.

The antiproliferative effects of a n-butanol extract from Chlorophytum comosum (C. comosum) (spider plant) roots was tested in vitro against four human cell lines: HeLa, CCRF-HSB-2, HL-60 and U937 cells

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A human monoclonal antibody, YJ‐37 (IgM) was generated through the fusion of human B lymphoblastoid cell line HO‐323 with the regional lymph node lymphocytes from a colonic cancer patient who was treated with a local immunotherapy. This antibody was purified and conjugated with biotin, after which direct immunohistochemical staining was performed. The results revealed that YJ‐37 selectively reacted with colonic cancer (7/19), gastric cancer (3/6), endometrial cancer (1/2) and colonic adenoma (7/13), but not with normal epithelia. Membrane immunofluorescence and FACS analysis also showed that YJ‐37 bound to tumor cell surfaces. Furthermore, the chemical structure of the antigen defined by YJ‐37 was analyzed by means of thin‐layer chromatography immunostaining and ELISA. The results indicated that YJ‐37 reacted with sialylated lacto‐series carbohydrate chains, which have been reported to accumulate in cancer cells.