What Is Recent in Pancreatic Cancer Immunotherapy?

Table 1

Pancreatic cancer-associated antigens for immune targeting.

PC-associated antigens	Characteristics and functions	Location	Tumor expression	References
CEA	Glycoprotein, normally expressed only in oncofetal tissues. Functions as cell-adhesion molecule. First tumor antigen to be described.	Cell surface (GPI-linked)	Overexpressed	[148, 152]
Her2-neu	A receptor tyrosine kinase, member of the EGF-receptor family, involved in cell growth and differentiation.	Transmembrane	Over-expressed	[149]
MUC-1	Type I transmembrane glycoprotein, expressed on apical surface of ductal and glandular epithelial cells at low levels. Extracellular domain has a polypeptide core with multiple tandem repeats of 20 aminoacids.	Transmembrane	Over-expressed, hypo-glycosylation	[37, 153]
P53	Tumor suppressor that regulates cell cycle. Normally inhibits survival at the transcription level and can initiate apoptosis if DNA damage is irreparable.	Intracellular	Mutated self	[154, 155]
Survivin	Member of IAP family. Inhibits caspase activation, is found in most human tumors and fetal tissue, but is completely absent in terminally differentiated cells.	Intracellular	Over-expressed	[150]
K-ras	Mutated form of ras, a GTPase important for cell proliferation, differentiation, and survival.	Intracellular	Mutated self	[156]
Telomerase	Ribonucleoprotein that is responsible for RNA-dependent synthesis of telomeric DNA. TERT is its catalytic subunit.	Intracellular	Over-expressed	[65]
VEGFR2	A tyrosine kinase and member of platelet-derived growth factor family. Receptor for VEGF with functions in blood vessel development.	Transmembrane	Over-expressed	[157]
Mesothelin	GPI-linked glycoprotein, expressed on the surface of mesothelial cells lining the pleura, peritoneum, and pericardium at low levels. Binding partner of CA125/MUC16.	Cell surface (GPI-linked)	Over-expressed	[27, 158]
Alfa-enolase	Glycolytic enzyme that also acts as a surface plasminogen receptor. Is found in a variety of tissue, on the cell surface as well as within the nucleus and cytosol.	Cell surface, Intracellular	Over-expressed, post-translational modified (i.e., acetylated)	[21, 151, 159]