Journal of Vaccines & Vaccination

Cancer testis antigens: Novel targets for ovarian cancer

6^th Euro Global Summit and Expo on Vaccines & Vaccination

August 17-19, 2015 Birmingham, UK

Maurizio Chiriva Internati

Keynote: J Vaccines Vaccin

Abstract:

Ovarian cancer is the fifth leading cause of cancer death in women and the leading cause from gynecological malignancies. Despite
the recently improved outcomes of new chemotherapeutical agents in the therapy of ovarian cancer and the increased 5-year
survival rate, the mortality of this malignancy disease remains unchanged. Ovarian cancer therapy is often correlated to the stage of
the tumor, but the first step is usually surgical treatment. Afterward, various courses of chemotherapy and radiation are suggested.
Obviously, the higher the developmental stage of the tumor, the less the probability is in eradicating it surgically, especially in relation
to metastasis. It is clear that an early diagnosis of ovarian cancer is important for the survival of these patients. In order to identify
ovarian cancer patients in the early stages, a number of studies are focusing on a particular class of antigens called cancer testis
antigens. These antigens display high expression in tumors of different histology, but are normally restricted to the testis and have
low or no expression in normal tissues. In the past few years, these antigens were demonstrated to be very promising for the early
diagnosis and development of vaccines for ovarian cancer. This study aims to underline the most reliable cancer testis antigens under
investigation at this moment.

Biography :

Maurizio Chiriva Internati completed his Degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Milan, Italy and Doctorate of Immunology at the University of Nottingham, UK
and morphological sciences at the University of Milan, Italy. He completed his Postdoctoral research on tumor immunology, virology and cancer vaccine studies from the
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Currently, he is the Director of Basic and Translational Research at the division on Hematology & Oncology at the Texas Tech
University Health Sciences Center, School of Medicine, and is a senior editor for the journal, International Reviews of Immunology. He has published more than 100 papers
in peer reviewed journals and serves as on the Editorial Board Member of several reputed cancer journals.