Cancer/Testis Antigen

A cancer/testis antigen is a member of a class of proteins whose expression is normally restricted to testis and other germline or immune-privileged tissue, but that becomes aberrantly re-expressed in various human cancers. Because they are largely absent from normal somatic tissue, cancer/testis antigens are immunogenic and have been studied both as tumor biomarkers and as immunotherapy targets; some members of this class, such as CAGE, also have direct oncogenic functions independent of their antigenicity.