Melanoma-associated antigen A (MAGEA) family proteins represent a class of tumor antigens that are expressed in a variety of malignant tumors, but their expression in normal tissues is restricted to germ cells.
To determine the frequency of expression of the tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) melanoma-associated antigen A3 (MAGE-A3) and preferentially expressed antigen of melanoma (PRAME) and the rate of EGFR mutations in a Taiwanese non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) population including only adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas.
We performed a retrospective review of 85 patients who underwent surgery for PTC and analysis of their tumor tissue by nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) with the MAGE common primer to detect the MAGE A1-6 gene.
However, there is no significant difference of MAGE genes differential expression shown among different primary tumor (T), nodal involvement (N) and overall stages.
Immunohistochemical analysis showed the retained expression patterns of S-100 protein, melanoma-associated antigen HMB-45 and vimentin in the xenografts as compared to the primary tumour.
The human anti-HLA-A1-MAGE-A1 antibody described here may prove very useful for monitoring the cell surface expression of these complexes, and eventually, as a targeting reagent for the specific immunotherapy of HLA-A1 patients bearing a MAGE-A1-positive tumor.