Journal Article

Tumour antigens recognized by T lymphocytes: at the core of cancer immunotherapy

Boon, Thierry, van der Bruggen, Pierre, Van den Eynde, Benoît J., Coulie, Pierre G.

2014

Overview

In this Timeline, the authors discuss the identification of tumour antigens that are recognized by T lymphocytes and how these findings can be effectively and safely transferred to the clinic. In this Timeline, we describe the characteristics of tumour antigens that are recognized by spontaneous T cell responses in cancer patients and the paths that led to their identification. We explain on what genetic basis most, but not all, of these antigens are tumour specific: that is, present on tumour cells but not on normal cells. We also discuss how strategies that target these tumour-specific antigens can lead either to tumour-specific or to crossreactive T cell responses, which is an issue that has important safety implications in immunotherapy. These safety issues are even more of a concern for strategies targeting antigens that are not known to induce spontaneous T cell responses in patients.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/250/21 / 631/67/1059/2325 / 631/67/580 / Animals / Antigens, Neoplasm - genetics / Antigens, Neoplasm - immunology / Biomedicine / Cancer / Cancer Research / Humans / Identification and classification / Immunotherapy / Neoplasms - genetics / Neoplasms - immunology / Neoplasms - therapy / Oncology, Experimental / Physiological aspects / T cells / T-Lymphocytes - immunology / timeline / Tumor antigens