title: Measurement of serum antibodies against NY-ESO-1 by ELISA: A guide for the treatment of specific immunotherapy for patients with advanced colorectal cancer.
abstract: NY-ESO-1 has been identified as one of the most immunogenic antigens; thus, is a highly attractive target for cancer immunotherapy. The present study analyzed the expression of serum antibodies (Abs) against NY-ESO-1 in patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC), with the aim of guiding the treatment of NY-ESO-1-based specific-immunotherapy for these patients. Furthermore, the present study was the first to evaluate the kinetic expression of anti-NY-ESO-1 Abs and investigate the possible influencing factors. A total of 239 serum samples from 155 pathologically confirmed patients with advanced CRC (stages III and IV) were collected. The presence of spontaneous Abs against NY-ESO-1 was analyzed using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). The results demonstrated that 24.5% (38/155) of the investigated patients were positive for NY-ESO-1-specific Abs. No statistically significant correlations were identified between the expression of anti-NY-ESO-1 Abs and clinicopathological parameters, including age and gender, location, grading, local infiltration, lymph node status, metastatic status and K-ras mutation status (P>0.05). In 59 patients, the kinetic expression of anti-NY-ESO-1 Abs was analyzed, of which 14 patients were initially positive and 45 patients were initially negative. Notably, 16/59 (27.1%) patients changed their expression status during the study period, and the initially positive patients were more likely to change compared with the initially negative patients (85.7 vs. 8.8%; P<0.001). Therefore, monitoring serum Abs against NY-ESO-1 by ELISA is an easy and feasible method. The high expression rate of NY-ESO-1-specific Abs in CRC patients indicates that measuring the levels of serum Abs against NY-ESO-1 may guide the treatment of NY-ESO-1-based specific immunotherapy for patients with advanced CRC.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P.R. China ; Medical School of Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yan-Yan
authors.initials: YY
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: Beijing ImmunoTech Applied Science Ltd., Beijing 100097, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing ImmunoTech Applied Science Ltd., Beijing 100097, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Qian-Rong
authors.initials: QR
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: Beijing ImmunoTech Applied Science Ltd., Beijing 100097, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Guang-Shun
authors.initials: GS
authors.lastname: Zheng
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Oncology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Shun-Chang
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Jiao
keywords: NY-ESO-1; antigen-specific immunotherapy; enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; humoral immunity; serum antibody