Biological role of α-fetoprotein in cancer: prospects for anticancer therapy

Abstract

α-fetoprotein has long been considered the ‘gold-standard‘ in the field of tumor markers. During the several decades since the recognition of mammalian α-fetoprotein as a tumor-associated fetal protein, it has been purified, characterized, cloned and sequenced for use in the clinical diagnostic laboratory. However, the biological role of α-fetoprotein in the regulation of cancer growth has received comparatively little attention. Only during the last decade has the modulatory role of α-fetoprotein in neoplastic growth been realized and implemented in experimental models. This review examines the basis for the current consensus that α-fetoprotein does indeed regulate neoplastic growth through the presence of an α-fetoprotein cell surface receptor that undergoes internalization to the cell interior. Studies involving uptake of this fetal protein have since culminated in radioimaging reports as well as the use of α-fetoprotein as an anticancer drug conjugate. Finally, the therapeutic utilization of α-fetoprotein and its peptidic fragments as growth-response modifiers encompasses biological events, such as apoptosis G-coupled signal transduction, gene therapy, vaccination and cancer chemoprevention

• anticancer drug cancer
• fetal protein
• growth regulation
• oncofetal protein
• radioimaging
• receptor
• tumor therapy