Monoclonal antibodies possess enormous potential for delivery of therapeutic amounts of radionuclides to target antigens in vivo, in particular for tumor imaging and therapy. Translation of this concept into practice has encountered numerous problems. Specifically whereas general protein radiolabeling methods are applicable to antibodies, immunological properties of the antibodies are often compromised resulting in reduced in-vivo specificity for the target antigens. The bifunctional chelating agent approach shows the most promise, however, development of other agents will be necessary for widespread usefulness of this technique. The effects of labeling chemistry on the in-vivo behavior of several monoclonal antibodies are described. 30 refs., 4 figs., 10 tabs
