[The expression of 11 cancer/testis (CT) antigen genes in esophageal carcinoma].
OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression status of 11 different cancer/testis (CT) antigen genes in esophageal carcinoma.


METHODS
Esophageal carcinoma tissue and adjacent normal esophageal mucosa taken from 35 esophageal carcinoma patients were assayed for the expression of 11 different CT antigen genes by RT-PCR techniques.


RESULTS
Of the 11 CT antigen genes analyzed, none of them was expressed in normal esophageal mucosa. MAGE-3 was found to be the most frequently expressed in esophageal carcinoma tissues (62.9%), followed, in the order of expression frequency, by MAGE4 (31.4%), LAGE-1 (28.6%), MAGE-1 (25.7%), CT10 (20.0%), NY-ESO-1 (20.0%), CT7 (5.7%) and SCP1 (2.9%). No expression of SSX-1, SSX-2 and SSX-4 was found. Among the 35 cases, 28 (80.0%) expressed at least one CT antigen gene, 21 (60.0%) expressed more than 2 CT antigen genes, and 4 of the 21 (19.0%) expressed more than 4 CT antigens, which accounted for 11.4% of total number of patients (4/35). No CT antigen expression was found in the tumor tissue in 7 cases, including 5 cases in stage II and 1 case each in stage I and IV, respectively. Of the 11 CT genes examined, expression of 5 genes (NY-ESO-1, LAGE-1, MAGE-1, MAGE-3 and MAGE-4) was correlated with tumor progression. SCP-1 and CT10 expression was found more frequently in early stage patients. With progression of the disease, the frequency of co-expression of multiple CT antigen genes was significantly increased reaching 28.6% in stage III patients.


CONCLUSIONS
Of the 11 different CT antigen genes examined by RT-PCR in esophageal carcinoma, 8 genes were detected in various frequencies in 28 of the 35 esophageal cancer patients studied. They are candidate tumor-associated antigens in the preparation of tumor vaccines for immunotherapy in esophageal cancer patients.
Liang
Zhen
Z
Department of Chest Surgery, School of Oncology, Peking University. Beijing 100036, China.
Sun
Zhen-Yuan
ZY
Yuan
Yan-Hua
YH
Han
Yan
Y
Wang
Yu
Y
Gu
Jin
J
Zhang
Li-Jian
LJ
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000235:genetics
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; C072013:MAGEA3 protein, human; C095204:MAGEA4 protein, human; C405429:MAGEC2 protein, human; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins