Cellular immune responses against cancer-germline genes in cancers.

BACKGROUND:Cancer-germline genes are a class of genes that are normally expressed in testis, trophoblast and few somatic tissues but abnormally expressed in tumor tissues. Their expression signature indicates that they can induce cellular immune responses, thus being applied as targets in cancer immunotherapy. OBJECTIVES:To obtain the data of cellular immune responses against cancer-germline genes in cancer. METHODS:We searched PubMed/Medline with the key words cancer-germline antigen, cancer-testis antigen, CD4+ T cell, CD8+ T cell and cancer. RESULTS:About 40 cancer-germline genes have been shown to induce T cell specific responses in cancer patients. Melanoma, lung and breast cancer are among the mostly assessed cancer types. Several epitopes have been identified which can be used in immunotherapy of cancer. CONCLUSION:Cellular immune responses against cancer-germline genes are indicative of appropriateness of these genes as therapeutic targets.