Basic Principles and Applications of Monoclonal Antibodies in the Management of Carcinomas: The Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Foundation Award Lecture1

The advent of hybridoma technology in 1975 (1) represented a quantum leap in the field of tumor immunology. For the first time, B-lymphocytes from immunized hosts could be immor talized by means of fusion with drug selected non-immunoglobulin secretor murine myeloma cells. These fused cell products could then be cloned and propagated indefinitely. The super natant fluids of cultures from literally thousands of these cloned cell populations (termed hybridomas) could then be assayed to select for homogeneous populations of immunoglobulins with the desired reactivity. As a result of this technology, numerous MAbs2 have been generated that have led to the identification