Scientists investigated the ability of the monoclonal antibody product, ICT-109, to detect pancreatic and lung cancer by binding specifically to glycosylated epitopes of CEA-CAM6 and CEA-CAM5, two common markers that are overly expressed in a majority of cancers. Glycosylated CEA is highly expressed in patients with pancreatic and lung cancers, and can be used to detect these cancers using a direct blood test.

ICT-109 is a product of ImmunoCellular Therapeutics, Ltd. (IMUC; Los Angeles, CA, USA), a clinical-stage biotechnology company. The pilot study used reverse phase microarray technology to determine serum and plasma expression levels of glycosylated CEA, and was performed in collaboration with Dr. Emanuel Petricoin at George Mason University (Fairfax, VA, USA).

Dr. Petricoin commented, "[I am] particularly excited and intrigued that the specific protein biomarkers that ICT-109 binds to are abnormally glycosylated. If one had looked at the total levels of the protein alone, they would not have been able to discriminate the diseases. Only when we utilized ImmunoCellular's specific antibody that only binds to the proteins when they are abnormally glycosylated did we get these exciting results. This demonstrates a unique aspect of proteomics that genomics cannot provide."

Related Links:
ImmunoCellular Therapeutics
George Mason University