Cryptic but critical: non-canonical antigens in cancer immunotherapy.

Abstract

Two recent studies, by Ely et al. and Apavaloaei et al., revealed that non-canonical antigens derived from unmutated, noncoding regions dominate the immunopeptidome of many cancers. Here, we discuss how this challenges conventional mutation-centric immunotherapies and highlight emerging strategies, including cryptic antigen- and TCR-targeted vaccines, as promising new clinically relevant paths in personalised and off-the-shelf cancer immunotherapy.