Abstract 3864: Evaluation of expression of antigens cancer/testis (CTAs) in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma

Abstract

Abstract Background: Among the ten most common cancers are the head and neck tumors with more than 500,000 new cases diagnosed annually worldwide, the majority (90%) represented by squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC). Despite of the many strategies used in the treatment for HNSCC, the 5 years overall survival rate is close to 50%, and the development of loco-regional recurrence is the main reason for treatment failure. The head and neck cancer surgery is often mutilating and require extensive reconstruction. The development of new therapies and their integration into the current forms of treatment (including surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy) is of great interest to improve the therapeutic efficacy. Immunotherapy may provide an alternative for current treatment scheme, since the natural immune response can be stimulated by active immunotherapeutic interventions which may help control 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) fulfills this prerequisite as their expression is restricted to tumors with no expression in normal tissues, except germ line cells. Methods: In this study we performed a search on Oncomine, SAGE, CTdatabase and PubMed databases to select among 153 CTAs genes those that might be expressed in HNSCC. The expression of selected genes was investigated in 93 HNSCC samples and 10 normal mucosa samples from healthy individuals using reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). The in silico analysis allowed the selection of 30 CTAs genes to be evaluated in tumors and control samples. The RT-PCR assays identified 6 CTAs with high specificity (100%) and frequently expressed in HNSCC samples (39 – 85%). Noteworthy, 99% of the tumor samples expressed at least one of the 6 CTAS, 91% expressed at least two of them, and 71% expressed at least three of these antigens. The six CTAs were expressed simultaneously in 13% of cases. Conclusion: We identified 6 CTAs genes with high expression and specificity in head and neck cancer. This result could be important for the development of immunotherapy strategies for treating HNSCC patients. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3864. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3864