The immune system responds to tumor cells. The challenge has been how to effectively use these responses to treat or protect against cancer. Toward the goal of developing a cancer vaccine, we are pursuing methodologies for the discovery and testing of useful antigens. We present an array-based approach for discovering these B cell antigens by directly screening for specific host-sera reactivity to lysates from tumor-derived cDNA expression libraries. Several cancer-specific antigens were identified, and these are currently being validated as potential candidates.
Keywords: antibody; cDNA; cancer; immunogen; library; sera; tumor; vaccine.