. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Apr 1.

Published in final edited form as: Clin Cancer Res. 2017 Apr 1;23(7):1656–1669. doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-16-2318

Table 2.

A non-exhaustive list of antigen targets for pancreatic cancer immunotherapies, and notable therapies targeting these antigens.

Target	Expression	Notable immunotherapies against antigen target
Mesothelin	Highly overexpressed in virtually all pancreatic cancers and also expressed at lower levels in pleura, peritoneum, and pericardium (100).	CRS-207 (Aduro Biotech); live-attenuated listeria monocytogenes engineered to secrete mesothelin (99,121) Amatuximab (MORAb-009, Morphotek); monoclonal antibody (166) DMOT4039A (Genentech); antibody-drug conjugate (167) Anetumab ravtansine, (BAY 94-9343, Bayer); antibody-drug conjugate (168) Anti-mesothelin CAR-T cells (UPENN, NCI) (118)
CEA	Glycosylated homotypic/heterotypic cell surface intracellular adhesion molecule, overexpressed in 56–98% of pancreatic cancers and also expressed on oncofetal tissues (169).	CEA peptide vaccine (CAP1-6D) emulsified in montanide and GM-CSF (170) TRICOM-CEA(6D); poxvirus-based vaccine expressing costimulatory molecules and CEA (171,172) AVX701 (Alphavax); poxvirus-based vaccine expressing costimulatory molecules and CEA (171,173) GI-6207 (GlobeImmune/Celgene); recombinant yeast-CEA vaccine (174)
MUC1	Transmembrane glycoprotein, overexpressed in ~90% of pancreatic tumors. Also low levels of expression on ductal and glandular epithelial cells. However, cancer-associated MUC1 is structurally different from normal MUC1 (hypoglycosylated) and may function as a tumor-specific antigen (175).	MUC1-peptide pulsed dendritic cells (176) Autologous dendritic cell vaccine (177) MUC1-peptide vaccine with SB-AS2 adjuvant (178) Adoptive transfer with MUC1 peptide-pulsed dendritic cells and activated T lymphocytes (179)
HER/EGFR/ERBB family proteins (eg HER1, HER2, HER3)	Cell-surface receptors implicated in tumor growth. HER2/neu is overexpressed in approximately 50% and EGFR in approximately 70% of pancreatic cancers and expression correlates with poor survival (97,98). These proteins are also expressed at lower levels in normal tissues.	Cetuximab (Erbitux, Lilly); EGFR antibody previously failed in clinical trials alone or in combination with cytotoxic agents, but may induce innate and adaptive immune responses that could synergize with novel immunotherapies (180,181). MM-141 (Merrimack Pharmaceuticals); bispecific antibody targeting IGF-1R and ErbB3 (HER3) (182)
Mutated KRAS	Intracellular GTPase important for cell growth and survival, mutated in up to 90% of pancreatic cancers (16,106). Mutated KRAS is a tumor-specific antigen.	GI-4000 (GlobeImmune); attenuated yeast expressing mutated RAS proteins (107) TG01 (Targovax); mutated RAS peptide vaccine co-administered with GM-CSF as an adjuvant (108)