Antigen
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'.
Overview
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.
- Target · the protein and the cell it sits on
- Drug · antibody, small molecule, cell or radioligand
- Effect · signal, damage or kill
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.
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