Wide range of diseases really make people depressed because sometimes these diseases might cause death. Based on the issue, a series of antigens have been developed in recent years, and tumor associated antigens can be one of the kind. Some researchers indicate that modern tumor associated antigens will be widely used in related medical realms, especially in the clinical applications of tumor.
What are the so-called antigens? Actually, an antigen can be any structural substance that serves as a target for the receptors of an adaptive immune response, TCR or BCR or its secreted form antibody, in terms of immunology sense. Put it simply, it’s the substance that causes an immune system to produce antibodies against it, because each antibody should be selected specifically after binding to a certain antigen. While how about the tumor associated antigens? What are they? Generally, tumor associated antigens are special antigenic substances that produced in tumor cells, which means they can bring an immune response to the human body. Such antigens are extremely useful in identifying tumor cells with diagnostic tests, which obviously improve the level of diagnosis.
More specifically, on the other hand, tumor associated antigens can be potential for the use of cancer therapy. Now given the fact, an increasing number of researchers have begun to study cancer immunology, trying to make some achievements in cancer treatment because cancer-related deaths have been serious for a long time. People are dedicated to make great improvements in such field. Taking the clinical application as an example, it is necessary to evaluate the safety of subcutaneous injections of tumor associated antigens in patients with recurrent or refractory brain tumors, because some other substances might be mixed with the antigens. As is known, tumor associated antigens are used in the combination with peptide vaccines whose precise mode of action is still unknown.
However, further improvement of the current approaches for tumor studies is required which may be achieved by combining antibody-based strategies with antiangiogenic therapy together. Certainly, modern biotechnology is an indispensable element as well. Maybe cancer deaths could really be eventually eliminated in the future, with the help of modern tumor associated antigens.