Quantification of SSX mRNA expression in human bone and soft tissue tumors using nucleic acid sequence-based amplification

The SSX family proteins have been considered new members of the cancer/testis antigens because of the restricted expression in testis among normal tissues and the activation in a wide range of cancers. Thus, they would be potential molecular targets for immunotherapeutic strategies. We have developed a competitive nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (NASBA) assay to analyze SSX mRNA expression in 211 bone and soft tissue tumors. The copy numbers of SSX mRNA per jig of total RNA in tumor tissues were widely distributed, ranging logarithmically from 0.6 to 6.6. We found that malignant tumors showed signiflicantly higher expression of SSX mRNA than benign tumors (P < 0.0001). Further, SSX mRNA expression in stage M tumors was significantly higher than that in stage I or H tumors (P < 0.005). This NASBA assay was also more sensitive compared to immunohistochemistry using newly affinity-purified polyclonal antibody against SSX. Collectively, these results suggest that the SSX quantitative NASBA assay could provide useful information to select eligible patients for SSX-specific cancer vaccines.