肿瘤抗原的新概念及其在淋巴瘤和其他肿瘤免疫治疗中的重要性

New Principles In Tumor Antigens and Their Significance in Future Immunotherapies for Lymphomas and Other Malignancies——Editorial

人类恶性肿瘤自身抗原的表达可以激发肿瘤免疫反应,肿瘤抗原特异的免疫治疗的确可以导致肿瘤消退。目前用于肿瘤自身抗原鉴定的方法有许多,已经鉴定出了2000余种自身肿瘤抗原。虽然已经发现了许多自身肿瘤抗原,但是肿瘤抗原特异的免疫治疗效果目前并不十分令人满意,为此需要不断完善选择这些自身肿瘤抗原的新的理论基础,获得更有效的自身肿瘤抗原进行临床治疗,改善肿瘤患者预后,使将来肿瘤的治愈成为可能。本文主要回顾了自身肿瘤抗原的发现、鉴定、临床作用及作用机理,并综述了一些关于自身肿瘤抗原的新理论新概念,以及其在未来肿瘤免疫治疗中的作用。

The molecular characterization of self-antigens expressed by human malignancies that are capable of eliciration of anti-tumor immune responses in patients has been an active field in hematology, oncology, and tumor immunology. More than 2000 tumor antigens have been identified. These significant progresses have led to the renaissance of tumor immunology and studies on novel anti-rumor immunotherapies in lymphomas, other hematologic malignancies and tumors. However, despite of the progress in the identification of these self-tumor antigens, current antigen-specific immunotherapies for tumors are far less satisfactory than that expected, which reflects the urgent need to improve our understanding on the basic principles underlying the selection of these self-tumor antigens. In order to develop more effective antigen-specific anti-tumor immunotherapies and to monitor the responses to these immunotherapies in patients with lymphomas and other malignancies, many additional questions need to be addressed. In this brief review, the progress in the identification of tumor antigens in lymphomas and other malignancies was outlined and the new principles of self-tumor antigens and their significance for future immunotherapies to these malignancies were summarized.