Human cortactin as putative cancer antigen

Humoral immune response against overexpressed oncogenic or tumor supressor proteins has been demonstrated for many types of cancer, In this study we r eport on the detection of the autologous antibody response to putative onco gene, human cortactin using serological analysis of breast carcinoma expres sion library. Cortactin maps to chromosome 11q13, the region amplified in a bout 15% of primary breast carcinomas and 30% of head and neck squamous cel l carcinomas, Cortactin overexpression due to such amplification might affe ct adhesive properties of human cancer cells and is associated with poor di sease prognosis, Accordingly, we detected overexpression of cortactin trans cript in autologous tumor and amplification/overexpression of cortactin in tumors of breast cancer patients serologically positive for this marker, We demonstrate that 15% of breast cancer patients elicit humoral immune respo nse against human cortactin.