A survey of the humoral immune response of cancer patients to a panel of human tumor antigens. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Evidence is growing for both humoral and cellular immune recognition of human tumor antigens. Antibodies with specificity for antigens initially recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), e.g., MAGE and tyrosinase, have been detected in melanoma patient sera, and CTLs with specificity for NY-ESO-1, a cancer-testis (CT) antigen initially identified by autologous antibody, have recently been identified. To establish a screening system for the humoral response to autoimmunogenic tumor antigens, an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed using recombinant NY-ESO-1, MAGE-1, MAGE-3, SSX2, Melan-A, and tyrosinase proteins. A survey of sera from 234 cancer patients showed antibodies to NY-ESO-1 in 19 patients, to MAGE-1 in 3, to MAGE-3 in 2, and to SSX2 in 1 patient. No reactivity to these antigens was found in sera from 70 normal individuals. The frequency of NY-ESO-1 antibody was 9.4% in melanoma patients and 12.5% in ovarian cancer patients. Comparison of tumor NY-ESO-1 phenotype and NY-ESO-1 antibody response in 62 stage IV melanoma patients showed that all patients with NY-ESO-1(+) antibody had NY-ESO-1(+) tumors, and no patients with NY-ESO-1(-) tumors had NY-ESO-1 antibody. As the proportion of melanomas expressing NY-ESO-1 is 20-40% and only patients with NY-ESO-1(+) tumors have antibody, this would suggest that a high percentage of patients with NY-ESO-1(+) tumors develop an antibody response to NY-ESO-1.

publication date

  • April 20, 1998

Research

keywords

  • Antibodies, Neoplasm
  • Antigens, Neoplasm
  • Autoantibodies
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay
  • Membrane Proteins
  • Neoplasms

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC2212223

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 2642673605

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1084/jem.187.8.1349

PubMed ID

  • 9547346

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 187

issue

  • 8