Tumour Antigens Recognized by Antibodies

Considerable progress has been made in the last few decades in the identification of defined tumour-associated antigens recognized by monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). The generation of mAbs against tumour antigens has principally been through standard hybridoma techniques following immunization of mice, while in the last decade recombinant phage display technology has also been employed. Much of the process of identification and characterization of tumour antigens recognized by mAbs has involved the careful serological analysis and rigorous immunohistochemical screening of normal tissues and tumours. These methods differ from the genetic approach typically used to identify antigens recognized by cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs), and the molecular definition of many of these antigens is therefore less well defined. Similarly, the function of many tumour-associated antigens (especially cell surface antigens in solid tumours) is often poorly understood. The importance of these tumour antigens is that they can be utilized for diagnostic and potential therapeutic purposes, and can also provide prognostic information for patients with cancer. The use of serum mAbs to identify tumour antigens through recombinant tumour complementary deoxyribonucleic acid (cDNA) libraries (SEREX) has recently emerged as a powerful new method for the characterization of novel tumour antigens, and the methodology, results and implications of this technique are also discussed in this article.