Document 0154
 DOCN  M95A0154
 TI    Immunity to the HER-2/neu oncogenic protein.
 DT    9510
 AU    Disis ML; Bernhard H; Gralow JR; Hand SL; Emery SR; Calenoff E; Cheever
       MA; Department of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle 98195,;
       USA.
 SO    Ciba Found Symp. 1994;187:198-207; discussion 207-11. Unique Identifier
       : AIDSLINE MED/95317143
 AB    The study of oncogenic viruses led to the discovery that transforming
       retroviruses contain oncogenes homologous with and/or derived from
       cellular proto-oncogenes. In humans malignant transformation is often
       the result of the activation of proto-oncogenes. Normal proto-oncogenes
       can be activated to transforming proto-oncogenes by a variety of
       mechanisms including point mutation, translocation and amplification.
       Development of successful strategies for the immunotherapy of human
       cancers is an area of intense investigation. Part of the problem in
       developing cancer-specific immunotherapy has been the lack of
       well-defined tumour antigens. Our laboratory has focused on the question
       of whether oncogenic proteins expressed by transforming proto-oncogenes
       can serve as targets for immune attack. Some patients with
       HER-2/Neu-positive breast cancer have an existent immune response to the
       HER-2/neu protein with no clinical signs of autoimmunity, supporting the
       idea that overexpressed oncogenic proteins can be targeted in therapy
       without fear of destructive autoimmunity. The identification of
       candidate cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitopes might allow the generation of
       tumour-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes for use in therapy and identify
       potential epitopes for peptide vaccines.
 DE    Amino Acid Sequence  Antibody Formation  Antigenic Determinants
       CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes/IMMUNOLOGY  Human  Immunity  Molecular
       Sequence Data  Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-erbB-2/CHEMISTRY/*IMMUNOLOGY
       Support, Non-U.S. Gov't  Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.  JOURNAL ARTICLE
       REVIEW  REVIEW, TUTORIAL

       SOURCE: National Library of Medicine.  NOTICE: This material may be
       protected by Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.Code).