Many studies demonstrated that cancer sera contain antibodies which react with autologous cellular antigens generally known as tumor-associated antigens (TAAs). In our laboratories, the approach used in the identification of TAAs has involved initially examining the sera of cancer patients using extracts of tissue culture cells as source of antigens in Western blotting and by indirect immunofluorescence on whole cells. With these two techniques, we identify sera which have high-titer fluorescent staining or strong signals to cell extracts on Western blotting and subsequently use these sera as probes in immunoscreening cDNA expression libraries, and also in proteomic approaches to isolate and identify targeted antigens which might potentially be involved in malignant transformation. In this manner, several novel TAAs including HCC1, p62, p90, and others have been identified. In extension of these studies, we evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of different antigen-antibody systems as markers in cancer in order to develop “tumor-associated antigen array” systems for cancer diagnosis, cancer prediction, and for following the response of patients to treatment.
