Patent ID: 7256004

Claim:
A method of detecting tumor cells expressing TAG-72, comprising: contacting cells with a humanized anti-TAG-72 antibody comprising a light chain Complementary Determining Region (L-CDR)1, a L-CDR2, and a L-CDR3; and a heavy chain Complementary Determining Region (H-CDR)1, a H-CDR2, and a H-CDR3, wherein L-CDR3, H-CDR1, H-CDR2, and H-CDR3 comprise murine monoclonal CC49 antibody CDRs and at least one of L-CDR1 and L-CDR2 are a human monoclonal LEN antibody L-CDR1 and L-CDR2, and wherein the humanized CC49 antibody retains binding affinity for TAG-72 and has reduced immunogenicity, as compared to a parental humanized CC49 antibody, detecting the presence of the humanized antibody bound to TAG-72, thereby detecting the presence of the cell expressing TAG-72.