Tumor associated antigens are self antigens, hence how are they different from tumor associated antigens?
While tumor-specific antigens (TSA) are exclusively expressed in tumor cells, tumor-associated antigens (TAA) are present on not only tumor cells but also some normal cells. TSA is characterized by alphafetoprotein (AFP) in Germ cell tumors and Hepatocellular carcinoma. TAA is characterized by Melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE) expressed in the testis as well as malignant melanoma. TAA gives the advantage to cancer cells for the escape from the immune system due to the “self-tolerance”.
While tumor-specific antigens (TSA) are exclusively expressed in tumor cells, tumor-associated antigens (TAA) are present on not only tumor cells but also some normal cells. TSA is characterized by alphafetoprotein (AFP) in Germ cell tumors and Hepatocellular carcinoma. TAA is characterized by Melanoma-associated antigen (MAGE) expressed in the testis as well as malignant melanoma. TAA gives the advantage to cancer cells for the escape from the immune system due to the “self-tolerance”.
this is sort of outdated, still a good starting point to give you a good background to start with
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK12961/
True - there are multiple classifications and even the one that Dimitrios is pointing to , elaborate as it is, suffers from degeneracy. This is rather a classification of properties of the tumor antigens that can coexist in a particular instance. I still find TSA / TAA antigen classification didactically very useful. It is as simple as it gets and captures the most important immunological property of the antigens - the relation to self/non-self. So, TAA are self by formal criteria yet they are aberrant in some respect - density, site of expression, accessibility for the immune system, etc. Setting them aside from the "true" TSA, focuses on another interesting immunological problem -the nature of tolerance , and stresses the quantitative and topological aspects of immune tolerance.
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