Expression of MAGE Gene Family in Esophageal Cancer

Masutsugu Fujita, Hiroyuki Naitoh, Nobukuni Terata, Masashi Kodama, Kyogo Itoh*

First Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science
*Department of Immunology, Kurume University, School of Medicine

MAGE (melanoma antigen) gene family, including MAGE-1, -2, -3, -4 and -6 genes that encode the human tumor-rejection antigen recognized by autologous cytolytic T lymphocytes, preferentially is expressed on many tumor cell lines as well as fresh tumor cells of various organs such as breast carcinoma, lung carcinoma, and gastric carcinoma, but is not expressed on a panel of normal tissues except testis, placenta, and skin during wound healing. We tested 15 surgical specimens of esophageal carcinomas and observed MAGE gene expression at the mRNA level in 10 out of 15 cases (67%). The results suggest that MAGE antigens are an approriate target molecule for specific immunotherapy in substantial proportions of patients with esophageal cancer.

Key words
melanoma antigen, esophageal cancer, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

Reprint requests
Masutsugu Fujita First Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Shiga University of Medical Science
Tsukinowa-cho, Seta, Otsu, 520-21 JAPAN

Accepted
October 11, 1995

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