Identifying Personalised and Shared Neoantigens in Breast Cancers

Abstract

A method has been developed for producing highly specific, polyclonal, or monoclonal antibodies, against breast cancer neoantigens. This technology could provide diagnostic and therapeutic antibodies against tumour neoantigens released by various solid tumours. The technology involves obtaining a portion of a lymph node that drains a breast cancer, dispersing its lymphocytes in culture medium to release a profile of individualised Antibody Secreting Cells (ASCs) that have responded to multiple neoantigens released by the cancer. These activated ASCs secrete antibodies that would normally be evoked by an in situ immune response. Collection of the secreted antibodies from the culture medium replaces the need to use blood serum in which antibodies may be bound to their antigens. Another feature of the technology is that it can reveal the nature of antigenic activity prevailing within progressing tumours. The method is, therefore, applicable to different types of cancer, to changing stages of the same cancer, as well as to ongoing levels of heterogeneity expressed in tumours with the passage of time. In brief, the value of the technology is based on its ability to detect the unique changes associated with evolving tumour antigenic expression in patients requiring effective immunotherapy related to the complexity of individual cancers.