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FAP (fibroblast activation protein) sits on the cancer-associated fibroblasts that scaffold more than 90% of epithelial cancers and is almost absent from normal adult tissue. FAPI PET tracers therefore light up tumours with high contrast, including pancreatic, gastric and low-grade cancers where FDG PET is weak, and FAP-targeted radioligands are in development. This dossier gathers the 2 products (0 approved), 2 trials, 4 pathways and 1 resistance route in the corpus that involve it, with external identifiers so it can be joined to UniProt, ChEMBL, Open Targets and the rest of biology.
Serine protease on activated fibroblasts; a stromal target rather than a tumour-cell target, so it is pan-cancer but does not report on the malignant cell itself.
| Cancer | Prevalence | Measure | Note | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma | >90% | Stromal FAP by IHC/FAPI PET | Cancer-associated fibroblasts | Wikipedia |
| Gastric & gastro-oesophageal junction cancer | >85% | Stromal FAP | Wikipedia | |
| Triple-negative breast cancer | >80% | Stromal FAP | Wikipedia | |
| Sarcomas | 60-90% | Tumour and stromal FAP | Wikipedia |
Approximate, population-level figures; the measure column says what was counted. Ranges show the midpoint as a bar.
| Modality | Phase 2 |
|---|---|
| Bispecific antibody 1 | |
| Radiopharmaceutical 1 |
| Trial | Setting | Result | Products | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1/2 | Recruiting | LuMIERE: A Phase 1/2, Multicenter, Open-label, Non-randomized Study to Investigate Safety and Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics, Dosimetry, and Preliminary Activity of 177Lu-FAP-2286 in Patients With an Advanced Solid Tumor | - | ||
| 1/2 | Recruiting | A Phase 1/2, Open-Label, Nonrandomized, Biomarker-Guided Study of Locoregional Allogeneic Dual-Target Mesothelin (MSLN) / Fibroblast Activation Protein (FAP) Chimeric Antigen Receptor Natural Killer Cells in Adults With Unresectable, Recurrent, or Refractory Pleural or Peritoneal Mesothelioma | - |
No pre-existing T-cell infiltrate (cold tumour) or T cells held at the margin by TGF-β and stroma.
Tumours come in three immune weathers: inflamed (T cells inside, checkpoint drugs work), excluded (T cells stuck at the edge), and desert (no T cells at all). Most common cancers are excluded or desert, and turning them 'hot' is the central problem of immunotherapy.
Which nodes have drugs →Tumours recruit the body's repair cells, fibroblasts, and keep them in wound-healing mode forever. The scar tissue they lay down (desmoplasia) squeezes blood vessels shut, walls out immune cells, stiffens the tissue in a way that itself tells cancer cells to grow, and is why pancreatic cancer is so hard to treat.
Which nodes have drugs →To invade, a cancer cell must grip the scaffolding around it, dissolve a path with enzymes, and pull itself forward, alone or in a chain led by a scout cell. Fibroblasts often cut the trail first. The enzyme blockers of the 1990s failed; today's targets are the grip (integrins, FAK) and the trail-makers.
Which nodes have drugs →A tumour is not just cancer cells. It is a neighbourhood of fibroblasts, immune cells, blood vessels, nerves, and scaffolding that the cancer recruits and corrupts, and that decides whether drugs and immune cells can get in.
Which nodes have drugs →No companion diagnostic in the registry measures this target.
No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.
No open questions recorded for this target yet. Suggest one.
Query for this target: (TITLE:"FAP" OR ABSTRACT:"FAP") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about FAP, not a curated reading list.
The dossier as machine-readable JSON, at /api/v1/dossiers/fap.json: identifiers from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL, products with status, trials, pathways, hotspots, open questions and assays. The full entity record is in the open API at /api/v1/entities/fap.json. Licence CC BY-NC 4.0.