In 98 evaluable cases, SCP-1 and SSX-4 were expressed most frequently (both 65%), followed by HOM-TES-85/CT-8 (47%), GAGE (26%), SSX-1 (20%), NY-ESO-1 (13%), MAGE-3 (11%), SSX-2 (8%), CT-10 (7%), MAGE-4 (4%) and CT-7 (1%).
In order to define antigens that might be suitable as vaccines for pancreatic carcinoma, we investigated the composite expression of 10 cancer testis (CT) antigens (SCP-1, NY-ESO-1, SSX-1, SSX-2, SSX-4, GAGE, MAGE-3, MAGE-4, CT-7 and CT-8) by Reverse Transcriptase-PCR (RT-PCR) in fresh biopsies of human pancreatic adenocarcinoma, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic carcinoma cell lines.
There were no significant differences between CT antigen expression levels and clinical parameters, except the correlations between the expression of SSX-1 and the age of the patients.