ONCOmmunity

Frequent High Expression of Kita-Kyushu Lung Cancer Antigen-1 (KK-LC-1) in Gastric Cancer.

By: Akiko Shida, Nobue Futawatari, Takashi Fukuyama, Yoshinobu Ichiki, Yoshihito Takahashi, Yatsushi Nishi, Noritada Kobayashi, Hitoshi Yamazaki, Masahiko Watanabe

Division of Surgery, Kitasato University Medical Center, Kitamoto, Saitama, Japan Division of Surgery, Kitasato University, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Japan.
2015-5-31; doi:

Abstract

Background

The tumor-associated antigen Kita-Kyushu lung cancer antigen-1 (KK-LC-1) has been reported as not being expressed in normal tissues, except for the testis, and in the setting of non-small cell lung cancer. The present study demonstrated that KK-LC-1 is expressed in gastric cancer.

Materials

We analyzed the expression of KK-LC-1 and cancer/testis antigens (CTAs) in surgical specimens of 49 gastric carcinomas. The expression of KK-LC-1 and CTAs was assessed using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction.

Results

KK-LC-1 expression was observed in gastric carcinomas. The number of lesions with expression of KK-LC-1, Melanoma antigen gene encoding-A1 (MAGE-A1), MAGE-A3 and New York Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma-1 (NY-ESO-1) was 40 (81.6%), 17 (34.7%), 22 (44.9%) and 8 (16.3%) out of the 49 specimens, respectively.

Conclusion

KK-LC-1 should be categorized as a CTA. The frequency of KK-LC-1 expression was higher than that of the other CTAs. KK-LC-1 might be a useful target for immunotherapy and in diagnosis of gastric cancer.