ABSTRACT
Melanoma Antigens The development of cancer vaccines has been most advanced in melanoma, which is unique
among human tumors in the existence of compelling evidence for its immunogenicity. Sponta neous regression of primary melanomas is quite common, and the prognosis of cutaneous melanomas varies direcdy with the lymphocytic infiltrate.4-5 Vitiligo is an autoimmune de struction of melanocytes that commonly occurs in melanoma patients, especially those who have been treated with interferon alpha or interleukin-2, and it is known to correlate with a favorable response to immunotherapy.6-8 Tumor-reactive lymphocytes from patient peripheral blood or those which infiltrate metastatic melanoma lesions can be propagated in vitro as long term T cell lines or clones.9-11 The ease with which such melanoma specific T-cells can be grown in vitro allowed Boon and colleagues in 1991 to describe the cloning of an antigen derived from a mutagenized melanoma cell line which was recognized by T cells.12,13 This antigen was called MAGE, and was shown to define a family of antigens that had not previ ously been identified. MAGE-1 and several members of its multigene family were shown to be present on a significant proportion of melanoma cell lines and fresh tumors but were also found on a variety of tumors of epithelial and neuroectodermal origin as well as normal testis and placental tissue, but no other normal tissue.14 MAGE, GAGE, BAGE and RAGE defined X-chromosome linked families of genes that were found respectively on melanoma, gastrointesti nal, breast and renal cell tumors, many of which encoded antigens that were recognized byT-cells
Peptide-Based Cancer Vaccines, edited by W. Martin Kast. ©2000 Eurekah.com.
