Overexpression of cancer/testis antigen melanoma-associated antigen a1 in lung cancer; a novel biomarker for prognosis, a possible target for immunotherapy

Lung cancer is one of the most common cancers in the world in terms of incidence and mortality. Testicular specific antigens are expressed naturally in the testis; however, aberrant expression of theseantigens in some cancers might provide an opportunity to consider them for therapeutic or diagnostic procedures. This study aimed to investigate the expression of cancer-testis antigen (Melanoma- associated antigen A 1; MAGE-A1) in invasive lung cancer tissues and its correlation with prognostic factors.This is a cross-sectional study. Paraffin blocks of 101 patients with lung cancer were obtainedduring 2007 to 2014 and stained for MAGE-A1 expression by immunohistochemistry (IHC) method and its correlation with prognostic factors was assessed using SPSS 16 by T test, chi-square, andPearson tests (p <0.05 was considered significant).Eighty non-small cell and 21 small cell lung cancer specimens were stained for MAGE-A1. MAGE-A1 was detected more commonly in adenocarcinomathan squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), significantly (78.3% vs. 60.5%, p=0.02). MAGE-A1 was expressed more frequently in male (68.7%) than in female (29.4%) (P=0.041). Moreover, patients older than 60 years expressed MAGE-A1 more frequently than the others (66% vs 46.3%, P=0.036).MAGE- A1 expression was found in a considerable number of lung cancer patients; more commonly inNSCLC, in the elderly, and in men. Further investigations are needed to assess MAGE-A1 expression as a potential cancer biomarker

کلیدواژه ها:

Lung Cancer ، Gene and Cancer ، Cancer Genetics ، Targeted Cancer Therapy ، Drugs and Cancer