Cancer is a heterogeneous, multifactorial disease that is manifested through a complex interplay of genetic, molecular and cellular factors, the immune landscape, and lifestyle and environmental influences. The current gold standard anti-cancer strategies target malignant cells based on characteristics that are more prevalent in these cells, however, these are not necessarily common to all patients and are often not unique to cancer cells, resulting in variable efficacy among patients and off-target side-effects. Therefore, recent advancements in cancer treatment are focusing on personalized medicine to improve patient stratification for target-specific treatment.
Cancer Testis Antigens (CTAs) form a family of over 700 proteins with restricted expression in adult somatic tissues and re-expression in tumor tissues. CTAs are considered as good candidate anti-cancer targets due to their expression patterns, wide range of pro-tumorigenic functions and immunogenic nature. Overall, tumor reexpression of CTAs is associated with advanced disease and poor outcome, supporting the potential of CTA expression as biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis, and as targets for therapeutic intervention. Furthermore, the immunogenic nature of CTAs has prompted a vast number of studies and clinical trials on CTA-based cancer vaccines and adoptive cell therapy. Despite our growing knowledge of CTA expression and targetability in cancer, their oncogenic functions mostly remain elusive, as do their interactions with the host anti-tumor immune response, which may affect treatment efficacy.
This Research Topic aims to collate new advancements and insights into the function and biomarker or therapeutic potential of CTAs in cancer. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Identification of novel, unique CTAs as diagnostic, prognostic or predictive biomarkers for cancer.
-Advancements in the understanding of the role of CTAs in tumor initiation, tumor progression and chemoresistance
-Exploration of CTA functions within the tumor immune ecosystem
-Novel therapeutic approaches to target CTAs (small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, etc)
-Combinatorial therapeutic strategies of conventional anti-cancer therapies with CTA-based interventions
We welcome Original Research and Review articles within the scope of the research topic.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
Cancer is a heterogeneous, multifactorial disease that is manifested through a complex interplay of genetic, molecular and cellular factors, the immune landscape, and lifestyle and environmental influences. The current gold standard anti-cancer strategies target malignant cells based on characteristics that are more prevalent in these cells, however, these are not necessarily common to all patients and are often not unique to cancer cells, resulting in variable efficacy among patients and off-target side-effects. Therefore, recent advancements in cancer treatment are focusing on personalized medicine to improve patient stratification for target-specific treatment.
Cancer Testis Antigens (CTAs) form a family of over 700 proteins with restricted expression in adult somatic tissues and re-expression in tumor tissues. CTAs are considered as good candidate anti-cancer targets due to their expression patterns, wide range of pro-tumorigenic functions and immunogenic nature. Overall, tumor reexpression of CTAs is associated with advanced disease and poor outcome, supporting the potential of CTA expression as biomarkers for diagnosis and prognosis, and as targets for therapeutic intervention. Furthermore, the immunogenic nature of CTAs has prompted a vast number of studies and clinical trials on CTA-based cancer vaccines and adoptive cell therapy. Despite our growing knowledge of CTA expression and targetability in cancer, their oncogenic functions mostly remain elusive, as do their interactions with the host anti-tumor immune response, which may affect treatment efficacy.
This Research Topic aims to collate new advancements and insights into the function and biomarker or therapeutic potential of CTAs in cancer. Topics of interest include but are not limited to:
- Identification of novel, unique CTAs as diagnostic, prognostic or predictive biomarkers for cancer.
-Advancements in the understanding of the role of CTAs in tumor initiation, tumor progression and chemoresistance
-Exploration of CTA functions within the tumor immune ecosystem
-Novel therapeutic approaches to target CTAs (small molecules, monoclonal antibodies, etc)
-Combinatorial therapeutic strategies of conventional anti-cancer therapies with CTA-based interventions
We welcome Original Research and Review articles within the scope of the research topic.
Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.
