Cancer/testis antigens expression and autologous serological response in a set of Brazilian non-Hodgkin's lymphoma patients.
BACKGROUND
Based on their tumor-associated expression pattern, cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) are considered potential targets for cancer immunotherapy. We aim to evaluate the expression of CTAs in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) samples and the ability of these patients to elicit spontaneous humoral immune response against CTAs.


METHODS
Expression of MAGE-A family, CT7/MAGE-C1, CT10/MAGE-C2, GAGE and NY-ESO-1 was analyzed by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray generated from 106 NHL archival cases. The humoral response against 19 CTAs was tested in 97 untreated NHL serum samples using ELISA technique.


RESULTS
11.3 % of NHL tumor samples expressed at least 1 CTA. MAGE-A family (6.6 %), GAGE (5.7 %) and NY-ESO-1(4.7 %) were the most frequently expressed antigens. We found no statistically significant correlation between CTA positivity and clinical parameters such as NHL histological subtype, Ann Arbor stage, international prognostic index score, response to treatment and overall survival. Humoral response against at least 1 CTA was observed in 16.5 % of NHL serum samples. However, overall seroreactivity was low, and strong titers (>1:1000) were observed in only two diffuse large B-cell lymphomas patients against CT45.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings are in agreement with most of published studies in this field to date and suggest an overall low expression of CTAs in NHL patients. However, as many new CTAs have been described recently and some of them are found to be highly expressed in NHL cell lines and tumor samples, further studies exploring the expression of different panels of CTAs are needed to evaluate their role as candidates for immunotherapy in NHL patients.
Departamento de Oncologia Clinica e Experimental, Universidade Federal de Sao Paulo, Rua Botucatu, 740, 3° andar, Hematologia, Vila Clementino, Sao Paulo, SP, 04023-900, Brazil. rigueljun@yahoo.com.br
Riguel J
RJ
Inaoka
Achim A
AA
Jungbluth
Sacha
S
Gnjatic
Erika
E
Ritter
Nicole C
NC
Hanson
Denise
D
Frosina
Jodie
J
Tassello
Leina Y
LY
Etto
Adriana B
AB
Bortoluzzo
Antonio C
AC
Alves
Gisele W B
GW
Colleoni
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000096:biosynthesis* / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D056724:Immunity, Humoral; D007150:Immunohistochemistry / Q000379:methods; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000096:biosynthesis / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; C104948:CTAG1B protein, human; C095366:GAGE2A protein, human; C110905:MAGEC1 protein, human; C405429:MAGEC2 protein, human; D008565:Membrane Proteins; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins