Tumor-associated Antigens

Targeting tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) is a promising approach for cancer immunotherapy. One of the main advantages of targeting TAAs is that it can minimize the off-target toxicities of conventional systemic cancer therapies, to include hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, while providing effective tumor cell cytotoxicity. TAAs can be targeted using peptide vaccines or by cellular approaches. TAAs can be broadly categorized into aberrantly expressed self-antigens, mutated self-antigens and tumor-specific antigens. Although they are preferentially expressed by tumor cells, TAAs are oftentimes found in normal tissues. However, their expression differs from that of normal tissues by their degree of expression in the tumor, alterations in their protein structure in comparison with their normal counterparts or by their aberrant subcellular localization within tumor cells. Targeting each one of these antigen types has advantages and disadvantages, which are discussed in this chapter.