This invention relates to the staging, diagnosis, and treatment of cancerous diseases, particularly to the use of monoclonal antibodies, antigen binding fragments thereof, and/or cancerous disease modifying antibodies (CDMAB), optionally in combination with one or more CDMAB, chemotherapeutic agents, and conjugates thereof, as a means for initiating a cytotoxic response to human head and neck squamous cell carcinomas. The invention further relates to binding assays, which utilize the monoclonal antibodies, antigen binding fragments thereof, and/or CDMAB of the instant invention. The cancerous disease modifying antibodies can be conjugated to toxins, enzymes, radioactive compounds, cytokines, interferons, target or reporter moieties and hematogenous cells. In particular aspects, the CDMAB used in the methods of the invention is an anti-CD44 antibody, which may be the antibody produced by the hybridoma deposited with the ATCC having accession number PTA-4621 and/or a chimeric or humanized version thereof.
