Abstract
The Thomsen-Friedenreich (TF) antigen is expressed in a majority of human tumors due to aberrant glycosylation in cancer cells. There is strong evidence that humoral immune response to TF represents an effective mechanism for the elimination of cancer cells that express TF-positive glycoconjugates. The presence of naturally occurring antibodies to tumor-associated TF and cancer-specific changes in their levels, isotype distribution and interrelation, avidity, and glycosylation profile make these Abs a convenient and ubiquitous marker for cancer diagnostics and prognostics. In this review, we attempt to summarize the latest data on the potential of TF-specific Abs for cancer diagnostics and prognostics.
Highlights
Altered glycosylation is a characteristic feature of cancer cells, which is closely associated with tumor progression and metastasis [1,2,3,4]
We have shown that blood group A gastric cancer patients revealed the strongest suppression of the anti-TF-specific Abs (TF Abs) level irrespective of age, disease stage, or tumor morphology [81]
We reported on the decrease of TF IgG mostly in advanced cancer, whereas the TF IgM level was decreased irrespective of the stage, reflecting the preexisting low level of TF Abs [16, 17, 33]
Summary
Altered glycosylation is a characteristic feature of cancer cells, which is closely associated with tumor progression and metastasis [1,2,3,4]. Observed prognostic improvements in cancer patients with a high level of TFspecific IgG Abs [17, 32,33,34] and encouraging experiments with TF-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) [35, 36] indicate that the TF-specific innate and/or adaptive immune response is an important part of cancer immunosurveillance, and the TF antigen is a promising molecular target for cancer immunotherapy [14, 37,38,39,40] This short review focuses mostly on the clinical potential of natural TF-specific Abs in cancer diagnostics and prognosis
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