Serological analysis of human tumor antigens: molecular definition and implications.

Specific vaccines for the immunotherapy of human neoplasms require specific human tumor antigens. While efforts to identify such antigens by the analysis of the T-cell repertoire have yielded few antigens, the application of SEREX, the serological identification of antigens by recombinant expression cloning, has brought a cornucopia of new antigens. Several specific antigens have been identified in each tumor tested, suggesting that many human tumors elicit multiple immune responses in the autologous host. The frequency of human tumor antigens, which can be readily defined at the molecular level, facilitates the identification of T-cell-dependent antigens and provides a basis for peptide and gene-therapeutic vaccine strategies.