Cancer testes antigens in breast cancer: biological role, regulation, and therapeutic applicability.
Breast cancer remains one of the leading causes of death among women across the world. The last few decades have seen significant reduction in mortality owing to earlier detection and better adjuvant treatments that were developed based on clinical staging and morphological features. As these treatments have evolved, the heterogeneity of breast cancer poses a new challenge, since there is no standard gold-therapy suitable for all tumors of the mammary gland. Therefore, contemporary management and research efforts are directed toward specific prognostic and predictive molecular signatures that can guide targeted individualized therapy. The goal of ongoing research in this field is to identify specific molecular targets for developing novel therapeutic approaches. These targets can also serve to improve screening of breast cancer. This review focuses on the role of cancer testis antigens (CTAs) in breast carcinogenesis and explores the potential for development of targeted screening and therapeutic approaches. Normally found in the testes, these antigens are highly correlative with cancers of the breast, skin, and ovaries. These implications have been further corroborated through uncovering the interaction of CTAs with genes and proteins involved in tumor suppression and homeostasis like p53. There is some evidence that these genes can be targeted for early detection in addition to being candidates for cancer immunotherapy.
Department of Internal Medicine at the Division of Hematology & Oncology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and Southwest Cancer Treatment and Research Center, Lubbock, TX 79430, USA.
Apurva
A
Pandey
Abhishek
A
Kurup
Arpan
A
Shrivastava
Saba
S
Radhi
Diane D
DD
Nguyen
Candy
C
Arentz
Nicholas
N
D'Chuna
Fred
F
Hardwick
Martin J
MJ
D'Souza
Marjorie
M
Jenkins
Fabio
F
Grizzi
W Martin
WM
Kast
Everardo
E
Cobos
Rakhshanda
R
Rahman
Maurizio
M
Chiriva-Internati
Raffaella
R
Chiaramonte
Natalia
N
Platonova
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D005260:Female; D015972:Gene Expression Regulation, Neoplastic; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D042361:Mammary Glands, Human / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D057285:Precision Medicine; D013737:Testis / Q000378:metabolism*; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53 / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism
D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D016159:Tumor Suppressor Protein p53