title: Oncogenic cancer/testis antigens: prime candidates for immunotherapy.
abstract: Recent developments have set the stage for immunotherapy as a supplement to conventional cancer treatment. Consequently, a significant effort is required to further improve efficacy and specificity, particularly the identification of optimal therapeutic targets for clinical testing. Cancer/testis antigens are immunogenic, highly cancer-specific, and frequently expressed in various types of cancer, which make them promising candidate targets for cancer immunotherapy, including cancer vaccination and adoptive T-cell transfer with chimeric T-cell receptors. Our current understanding of tumor immunology and immune escape suggests that targeting oncogenic antigens may be beneficial, meaning that identification of cancer/testis antigens with oncogenic properties is of high priority. Recent work from our lab and others provide evidence that many cancer/testis antigens, in fact, have oncogenic functions, including support of growth, survival and metastasis. This novel insight into the function of cancer/testis antigens has the potential to deliver more effective cancer vaccines. Moreover, immune targeting of oncogenic cancer/testis antigens in combination with conventional cytotoxic therapies or novel immunotherapies such as checkpoint blockade or adoptive transfer, represents a highly synergistic approach with the potential to improve patient survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer and Inflammation Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Morten F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Gjerstorff
authors.affiliation: Department of Haematology, Center for Cancer Immune Therapy (CCIT), Copenhagen University Hospital, Herlev, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mads H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Andersen
authors.affiliation: Department of Cancer and Inflammation Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark.|Department of Oncology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
authors.forename: Henrik J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Ditzel
mesh_terms: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007167:Immunotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology* / Q000628:therapy*; D013737:Testis / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000951:Antigens, Neoplasm
keywords: cancer/testis antigen; immunotherapy; oncogenesis