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. 2016 Jan;39(1):1-7.
doi: 10.1097/CJI.0000000000000101.

Expression of MAGE-A and NY-ESO-1 in Primary and Metastatic Cancers

Tristen S Park  1 , Eric M Groh, Krishna Patel, Sid P Kerkar, Chyi-Chia Richard Lee, Steven A Rosenberg
Affiliations

Expression of MAGE-A and NY-ESO-1 in Primary and Metastatic Cancers

Tristen S Park et al. J Immunother. 2016 Jan.

Abstract

Melanoma-associated antigen-A (MAGE-A) and New York esophageal squamous cell cancer-1 (NY-ESO-1) are 2 cancer testis antigens (CTA) demonstrating potential for use in targeted immunotherapy. Clinical trials in melanoma and synovial sarcomas targeting these antigens in immune-based therapies have demonstrated durable tumor regression. Although protein expression of NY-ESO-1 has been assessed in a variety of cancer types, the expression of MAGE-A has not been studied in depth. In this study we analyzed MAGE-A and NY-ESO-1 expression in 314 melanoma specimens from 301 melanoma patients, 38 patients with squamous cell cancers and 111 patients with adenocarcinomas. Our results demonstrated higher expression of MAGE-A compared with NY-ESO-1 in melanomas (32% vs. 13%) and squamous cell carcinomas (45% vs. 7.9%), and higher expression of both CTAs in metastatic versus primary tumors. CTA expression in adenocarcinomas was low (MAGE-A: 10%, NY-ESO-1: 0.9%). In addition, we looked at concordance of expression among metastatic melanoma lesions within the same patient and found concordant expression in 38 of 47 patients for MAGE-A and 43 of 47 patients for NY-ESO-1. Our study demonstrated that the MAGE-A family may be of greater utility than NY-ESO-1 for targeted immunotherapy in a variety of cancer histologies, in particular metastatic melanomas and squamous cell carcinomas.

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Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Representative examples of melanoma-associated antigen-A (MAGE-A) and New York esophageal squamous cell cancer-1 (NY-ESO-1) expression in primary and metastatic melanomas. A, NY- ESO-1 expression, 1 + intensity. B, NY- ESO-1 expression, 2 + intensity. C, NYESO-1 Expression, 3+ intensity. D, MAGE-A expression, 1 + intensity. E, MAGE-A expression, 2+ intensity. F, MAGE-A expression, 3 + intensity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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