Abstract

BACKGROUND
Several cancer-testis antigen genes or gene families have been isolated to date, including Melanoma Antigen Gene (MAGE) and Synovial Sarcoma on X chromosome (SSX). This study attempted to investigate the possibility of immunotherapy for ovarian cancer and to explore the prevalence of the expression of MAGE and SSX.
METHODS
The fresh tissue samples were obtained from 5 cases of normal ovaries, 6 cases of non-neoplastic disease, 21 cases of benign ovarian tumors, and 12 cases of malignant ovarian tumors. The expression of MAGE A1-6 and SSX 1-9 was detected by nested reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction using each common primers sets for MAGE A1-6 and SSX 1-9.
RESULTS
The expression rate of MAGE 1-6 mRNA was 23.0% (5/21) for the benign ovarian tumors and 91.7% (11/12) for the malignant ovarian tumor, whereas the normal ovaries (0/5) and non-neoplastic ovarian tissues (0/6) did not express MAGE (p<0.05). The expression rate of SSX was 40.0% (2/5) for the normal ovaries, 23.0% (5/21) for the benign ovarian tumors, and 33.3% (4/12) for the malignant ovarian tumors, while the non-neoplastic ovarian tissues showed no expression of SSX (p>0.05). A relationship between the two genes was not observed (kappa coefficient=0.32).
CONCLUSION
These results suggest that the gene products of MAGE and SSX can be useful for the immunotherapy of ovarian cancer patients and that MAGE can be a more promising target than SSX from the viewpoint of applicability and cancer-specificity.

• Keywords: Ovarian cancer;MAGE;SSX;Common primers;