Safety Starts with Selecting the Targets

Targeting tumor antigens with immunotherapy is rapidly emerging as a promising approach for cancer treatment. The accumulation of genetic and epigenetic aberrations, a hallmark of malignancy, generates transcriptional and proteomic diversity. This diversity also affects the cancer surfaceome, thus providing targets promoting disease initiation and progression and for use of immunotherapy. However, off-target effects resulting from inadvertent targeting of non-malignant cells expressing the same or similar antigen represent a serious safety concern.