Tumor-associated antigen arrays for the serological diagnosis of cancer

The recognition that human tumors stimulate the produc-tion of autoantibodies against autologous cellular pro-teins called tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) has opened the door to the possibility that autoantibodies could be exploited as serological tools for the early diag-nosis and management of cancer. Cancer-associated au-toantibodies are often driven by intracellular proteins that are mutated, modified, or aberrantly expressed in tumor cells and hence are regarded as immunological reporters that could help uncover molecular events underlying tu-morigenesis. Emerging evidence suggests that each type of cancer might trigger unique autoantibody signatures that reflect the nature of the malignant process in the affected organ. The advent of novel genomic, proteomic, and high throughput approaches has accelerated interes