Lessons learned about the therapeutic potential of the natural human immune response to lung cancer

Abstract

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths; patients with this disease often develop antibodies to their own tumour antigens. TB94 is one such human antibody, and was obtained from the natural immune response from a patient with lung cancer. The data generated so far on TB94 suggest that this human antibody may have clinical applications in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Since humans make antibodies to tumour antigens, the intelligence of the human immune response can be exploited for the discovery of potential novel antigens. These novel antigens can then be developed for vaccine applications. Creating effective strategies to analyse systematically the natural human immune response to tumour antigens will open up new areas of immunotherapy for the control and eradication of disease.