 |
|
|
|
Cancer
Immunity, Vol. 2, p. 11 (19 September 2002) Submitted: 8 August 2002. Accepted: 8 August 2002.
Contributed by: M Pfreundschuh
Expression of cancer-testis genes in human hepatocellular carcinomas
Guorong Luo1, Shaoming Huang2,
Xiaoxun Xie1, Elisabeth Stockert3,
Yao-Tseng Chen3, Boris Kubuschok2,
and Michael Pfreundschuh2
1Department of Embryology, Guangxi Medical University, China
2Department of Medicine, Saarland University Medical School, Germany
3Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, New York, NY, USA
Keywords:
human, hepatocellular carcinoma, biopsy, tumor antigens, RT-PCR
|
|
|
|
|
|
Abstract
Cancer-testis (CT) genes are expressed in a variety of human cancers, but not in normal tissues except for testis, and represent promising targets for immunotherapy and gene therapy. We investigated the expression of 10 CT genes (MAGE-1, MAGE-3, MAGE-4, GAGE, NY-ESO-1, SSX-1, HOM-MEL-40/SSX-2, SSX-4, HOM-TES-14/SCP-1, and HOM-TES-85) in 21 hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biopsy specimens. The most frequently expressed CT genes were SSX-1 and GAGE, which were found in 8/21 (38%) HCC samples, followed by HOM-TES-14/SCP-1 (6/21 or 29%), MAGE-3 (5/21 or 24%), HOM-TES-85 and MAGE-1 (4/21 or 19% each), whereas SSX-4 and HOM-MEL-40/SSX-2 were only expressed in 2/21 cases each, MAGE-4 in one case, and NY-ESO-1 not at all. Of the 21 HCC cases investigated, only four did not express any of the CT genes tested, 17 (81%) expressed at least one, 9 (43%) coexpressed two, four (19%) coexpressed four, three (14%) coexpressed five and one coexpressed 8 of the 10 CT genes tested. We conclude that a majority of HCC cases might be amenable to specific immunotherapeutic interventions. However, the identification of additional tumor-specific antigens with a frequent expression in HCCs is warranted to develop widely applicable, polyvalent HCC vaccines.
|
