Anything an antibody or immune cell can recognise, typically a protein on a cell's surface. In cancer, an antigen is the flag that tells a drug or an immune cell 'this is the cell to attack'.
Most cancer antigens are ordinary human proteins that a tumour makes in unusual amounts (HER2, TROP2, CD19, PSMA), so drugs targeting them also touch normal cells that carry a little; truly tumour-specific antigens arise from mutations (neoantigens) or from viral proteins. A good drug antigen is abundant on tumour cells, scarce on essential normal tissue, and stable over time. Tumours escape by losing the antigen, which is how CD19-negative relapse defeats CAR-T, and by hiding the pieces of antigen they would normally display to T cells.
In plain words · A growth-signal receptor. Some cancers make far too much of it, and drugs that block it or use it as a docking site have transformed those cancers.
Showing the target this term concerns: HER2.
Shares Monoclonal, Antibody, Immune system, T cell.
Shares Antibody, Immune system, T cell.
Shares BCMA, Drug resistance (primary and acquired), CD19, T-cell engagers (bispecific).
Shares Immune system, T cell, T-cell engagers (bispecific), CAR-T cell therapy.
Shares PSMA, CD19, T-cell engagers (bispecific).
Shares BCMA, T-cell engagers (bispecific), HER2, Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC).
Shares BCMA, CD19, CAR-T cell therapy.
Shares CD19, HER2, Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC).