Abstract 1142: The expression profile of cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) in head and neck cancer

• Published in: Cancer research (Chicago, Ill.) Vol. 72; no. 8_Supplement; p. 1142
• Main Authors: Karia, Bruno Takao R., Zamuner, Fernando Tadeu, Nani, Luiz Augusto S., Rodrigues, Dorival M., Carvalho, Andre L., Vettore, Andre Luiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 15.04.2012
• ISSN: 0008-5472; 1538-7445
• DOI: 10.1158/1538-7445.AM2012-1142

Abstract Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the most frequent types of cancer. Despite significant improvements in the therapeutic strategies, the overall survival rate in 5 years is around 50%. The development of new therapies and their integration into the current forms of treatment (surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) is of great interest to improve the therapeutic efficacy. Immunotherapy may provide an alternative for current treatment approach, since the natural immune response can be stimulated by active immunotherapeutic interventions which may help in the control of the tumor progression and recurrence. A requirement for the development of immunotherapeutic approaches is the identification of immunogenic gene products expressed predominantly in tumor cells. Cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) fulfill this prerequisite as their expression is restricted to tumors with no expression in normal tissues, except germ line cells. In this study we performed a search on Oncomine, SAGE Anatomic Viewer, CTdatabase and PubMed databases to select among the 153 CTAs genes those that might be expressed in HNSCC. This in silico analysis allowed the selection of 60 CTAs genes to have their expression evaluated in 89 tumors and in 20 normal mucosa by RT-PCR. According this analysis, 13 CTAs were specificaly expressed in HNSCC samples (>25% sensitivity) The expression of CTA1 was significantely associated with perineural invasion (p=0,023) and vascular invasion (p=0,003), whereas the presence of CTA2 or CTA3 was correlated with the presence of tumor cells in the lymph nodes (p=0,023 and p=0,037, repectively). Moreover, the CTA4 expression showed to be associated with capsular rupture (p=0,005). We report here the identification of 13 CTAs frequently expressed in HNSCC and the expression of some of them was significantly associated with poor prognostic factors. These results could be important for the development of immunotherapy strategies for treating HNSCC patients. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1142. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1142