Immunotherapy for adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary glands: cancer/testis antigens and 5-aza-2'-deoxycytidine.

Adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary glands is the epithelial tumor. There are amount of malignant occurrences of adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary glands in the head and neck area. Cancer/testis antigens can be found in various malignant tumors, normal adult testis and occasionally placenta, but not in the other normal adult tissues. This characteristic makes Cancer/testis antigens as potential markers to be applied in immunotherapeutic strategies against cancer. It has been shown that in different tumors, the expression of certain Cancer/testis antigens is activated treated with 5-aza-CdR via the demethylation of their promoter CpG islands. It is logical that multiple Cancer/testis antigens may correlate with the clinicopathologic factors of adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary glands and be the potential markers of prognosis treated with 5-aza-CdR. So the hypothesis will provide the new direction that we can use Cancer/testis antigens as candidate antigens for adenoid cystic carcinoma of salivary glands immunotherapy due to the high expression rate activated with 5-aza-CdR.