{"entity":{"id":"mesothelin","kind":"target","name":"Mesothelin","aka":[],"tldr":"Mesothelin is a surface protein on mesothelioma, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers, targeted by ADCs, CAR-T, and T-cell engagers.","summary":"Mesothelin (MSLN) is a GPI-anchored protein with restricted normal expression on mesothelial surfaces; it binds MUC16/CA-125 but its function is largely dispensable, so targeting it carries little on-target risk in healthy tissue. It is expressed in 85-100% of epithelioid mesothelioma (lower in sarcomatoid), 80-90% of pancreatic cancer, 60-70% of serous ovarian cancer, and lung adenocarcinoma. Anetumab ravtansine failed in mesothelioma, which set back the ADC route. Mesothelin remains a leading solid-tumour CAR-T target, including regionally delivered and mRNA-CAR approaches designed to overcome poor infiltration and short persistence, and T-cell engagers are also in development. The simple version is a surface protein shared by several hard-to-treat cancers that engineered immune cells can be aimed at.","asOf":"2026-09-04","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelin","links":[{"label":"Wikipedia","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelin"}],"tags":["car-t-target","adc-target"],"related":[],"cancers":["mesothelioma","pancreatic","ovarian"],"sections":[],"technologies":[],"targets":[],"drugs":["eb-mf-car-nk-01"],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":[],"trials":["nct07467863","nct07480954","nct07641023","nct07083323"],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"symbol":"MSLN","role":[],"sources":[],"specificity":"tumour-associated","distribution":"few-types","specificityNote":"Tumour-associated overexpression: 2 cell-killing or cell-finding medicines (EB-MF-CAR-NK-01, Anetumab ravtansine) aim at the antigen, which HPA finds stained high in 4 normal tissues; the medicine relies on the tumour carrying more of it than the normal tissue it shares it with. HPA MSLN: RNA tissue enhanced (adipose tissue 89 nTPM, fallopian tube 262 nTPM); blood lineage group enriched (dendritic cells 6 nTPM, monocytes 2 nTPM); high antibody staining in 4 normal tissues; highest cancer staining pancreatic cancer (4 of 12 high). Distribution: 3 cancer families in the corpus carry a prevalence row, label threshold or catalogue link for it (Mesothelioma, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Ovarian cancer); Open Targets associates it with 0 specific cancer types at or above 0.5. (Rule 5 of scripts/fetch-target-specificity.ts.)","specificitySources":[{"label":"Human Protein Atlas MSLN tissue","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000102854-MSLN/tissue","note":"RNA tissue and blood lineage specificity, normal tissue antibody staining (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Human Protein Atlas MSLN pathology","url":"https://www.proteinatlas.org/ENSG00000102854-MSLN/pathology","note":"patients per staining level per cancer type (version 25.1, CC BY-SA 3.0)"},{"label":"Open Targets ENSG00000102854 associations","url":"https://platform.opentargets.org/target/ENSG00000102854/associations","note":"cancer associations at or above 0.5 (CC0)"}],"hgnc":"HGNC:7371","ensembl":"ENSG00000102854","uniprot":"Q13421","entrez":"10232","firstDescribed":1994,"firstDescribedBasis":"sequence","firstDescribedNote":"Earliest sequence paper UniProt cites for the protein: Yamaguchi et al, J. Biol. Chem, 1994, \"A novel cytokine exhibiting megakaryocyte potentiating activity from a human pancreatic tumor cell line HPC-Y5\".","firstDescribedSource":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8288629/","biology":"Binds MUC16/CA-125; function largely dispensable.","whereFound":["Mesothelioma","Pancreatic","Ovarian","Lung adenocarcinoma"],"targetClass":"surface-antigen","prevalence":[{"cancerId":"mesothelioma","pct":"85-100","measure":"Epithelioid histology","source":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelin","note":"Lower in sarcomatoid"},{"cancerId":"pancreatic","pct":"80-90","measure":"IHC, any expression","source":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelin"},{"cancerId":"ovarian","pct":"60-70","measure":"IHC, any expression","source":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesothelin","note":"Serous"}]},"route":"/targets/mesothelin/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"mesothelioma","kind":"cancer","name":"Mesothelioma","route":"/cancers/mesothelioma/"},{"id":"metastatic-pdac","kind":"cancer","name":"Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma","route":"/cancers/metastatic-pdac/"},{"id":"ovarian","kind":"cancer","name":"Ovarian cancer","route":"/cancers/ovarian/"},{"id":"pancreatic","kind":"cancer","name":"Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma","route":"/cancers/pancreatic/"}],"drug":[{"id":"anetumab-ravtansine","kind":"drug","name":"Anetumab ravtansine","route":"/drugs/anetumab-ravtansine/"},{"id":"eb-mf-car-nk-01","kind":"drug","name":"EB-MF-CAR-NK-01","route":"/drugs/eb-mf-car-nk-01/"}],"trial":[{"id":"nct07083323","kind":"trial","name":"A Phase I/II Study of HY05350 in Mesothelin(MSLN)-Positive Advanced Solid Tumors","route":"/trials/nct07083323/"},{"id":"anetumab-vs-vinorelbine-mpm","kind":"trial","name":"Anetumab ravtansine versus vinorelbine in relapsed mesothelin-positive pleural mesothelioma","route":"/trials/anetumab-vs-vinorelbine-mpm/"},{"id":"nct07467863","kind":"trial","name":"Dual-Target CAR-NK Cells Directed Against MSLN, EGFR, or HER2 in Advanced NSCLC","route":"/trials/nct07467863/"},{"id":"nct07641023","kind":"trial","name":"Dual-Target CAR-NK Cells Targeting MSLN, EGFR, or HER2 in Advanced NSCLC","route":"/trials/nct07641023/"},{"id":"nct07480954","kind":"trial","name":"Dual-Targeting CAR-NK Cells for Recurrent Ovarian Cancer (MSLN, FRα, MUC16)","route":"/trials/nct07480954/"},{"id":"eclipse","kind":"trial","name":"ECLIPSE (GVAX pancreas and CRS-207)","route":"/trials/eclipse/"},{"id":"nci-anetumab-pembrolizumab-mpm","kind":"trial","name":"Pembrolizumab with or without anetumab ravtansine in mesothelin-positive pleural mesothelioma (NCI)","route":"/trials/nci-anetumab-pembrolizumab-mpm/"}],"idea":[{"id":"idea-adc-for-mesothelioma","kind":"idea","name":"Antibody-drug conjugates for mesothelioma: why they have failed so far and how they could work","route":"/ideas/idea-adc-for-mesothelioma/"},{"id":"idea-mesothelin-car-t-regional","kind":"idea","name":"Regionally delivered mesothelin CAR-T with PD-1 blockade","route":"/ideas/idea-mesothelin-car-t-regional/"},{"id":"idea-bio2-intracavitary-immunotherapy","kind":"idea","name":"Treat the body cavity, not the bloodstream, for surface spread","route":"/ideas/idea-bio2-intracavitary-immunotherapy/"}],"technology":[{"id":"car-t","kind":"technology","name":"CAR-T cell therapy","route":"/technologies/car-t/"}],"person":[{"id":"philip-greenberg","kind":"person","name":"Philip D. Greenberg","route":"/people/philip-greenberg/"},{"id":"raffit-hassan","kind":"person","name":"Raffit Hassan","route":"/people/raffit-hassan/"}],"target":[{"id":"muc16","kind":"target","name":"MUC16 (CA-125)","route":"/targets/muc16/"}],"institution":[{"id":"nci-ccr","kind":"institution","name":"NCI Center for Cancer Research (intramural programme)","route":"/institutions/nci-ccr/"}]}}