背景及目的：有些人類腫瘤表達抗原可以被應用在腫瘤專一免疫治療的標靶辨識上，腫瘤睪丸抗原(cancer testis antigens) 中之黑色素瘤抗原(MAGE)， 在大部分的組織不會表現除了睪丸及胎盤之外，但會表達在許多腫瘤組織上，這種專一的分佈形式將可以當作腫瘤專一治療之標靶抗原。方法：使用兩種腫瘤細胞株當作陽性對照組，在國泰醫院自23 個罹患浸潤腺乳癌患者進行手術時採取檢體，從檢體中抽取全部RNA後，進行RT-PCR反應以測定MAGE-1、MAGE-2、MAGE-3 及MAGE-12 基因之表現，PCR 產物以洋菜電泳膠體進行分析。結果：23 個檢體中有21 個表現MAGE 基因，其中MAGE-2 基因的表現率有52.2%，MAGE-3 基因的表現率有34.8%，而MAGE-12 基因的表現率有56.5%，明顯較MAGE-1 基因為高(p < 0.01) 。結論：我們的實驗結果顯示MAGE-2，MAGE-3 及MAGE-12 基因，而非MAGE-1 基因，將可能作為台灣乳癌病患進行免疫治療之標靶，在研發乳癌疫苗上為有效辨識人類乳癌細胞可能將需要使用多價性的癌症疫苗。

Background and purpose: Some human neoplasms express antigens that can be used astargets for tumor-specific immunotherapy. Cancer testis antigens (CTAs) such as melanomaantigen (MAGE) are expressed in many tumors but are silent in normal tissues except for testisand placental tissue. Such a specific distribution pattern makes them promising targets forpossible cancer immunotherapy. Methods: Using 2 human breast cancer cell lines for positivecontrol, tumor samples collected from 23 patients who had undergone surgical treatment forbreast infiltrative ductal carcinoma at Cathay General Hospital, Taipei, were examined. Afterisolation of total RNA, reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)was carried outto determine the presence of mRNAs of 4 genes in the MAGE family which have recently beenidentified:MAGE-1,MAGE-2,MAGE-3, andMAGE-12. The PCRproductswere further separatedon agarose gels and visualized by ethidium bromide staining. Results: Twenty-one of 23 sampleswere positive for MAGE mRNA. The positive expression rates of MAGE-2 (52.2%), MAGE-3(34.8%), andMAGE-12 (56.5%) were significantly (p < 0.01) higher than the expression rate of theMAGE-1 (0%) gene. Conclusion: Our data suggest thatMAGE-2,MAGE-3, andMAGE-12, butnotMAGE-1, are possible candidates for immunotherapy for Taiwanese breast cancer patients. Inaddition, multivalent cancer vaccines are required for recognizing human breast cancer cells.