FAP is a protein on the scaffolding cells that surround many tumours, so it lights up almost any solid cancer on a PET scan. This dossier gathers the 1 product (0 approved), 0 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.
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.
- Pancreatic
- Gastric
- Breast
- Sarcoma
- Almost all desmoplastic tumours
Elsewhere: identifiers and databases
Built from HGNC, Ensembl, UniProt and ChEMBL idsHow common it is, by cancer
Full matrix →| 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.
Products by modality and phase
Browse products →| Modality | Phase 2 |
|---|---|
| Radiopharmaceutical 1 |
Trials
Evidence ranking →No trial in the corpus names this target or one of its products.
Resistance routes that involve this target
Unaddressed routes →No pre-existing T-cell infiltrate (cold tumour) or T cells held at the margin by TGF-β and stroma.
- Radiation, oncolytic viruses, ADC + IO to prime
- Personalised neoantigen vaccines to supply T cells
- TIL therapy after PD-1 failure
Pathways where it is a node
Pathway-to-drug matrix →- Cold tumours: immune deserts and exclusionNode: TGF-β CAFs, collagen · 6 druggable nodes
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 → - Fibroblast activation, desmoplasia & matrix stiffnessNode: myCAF (FAP, αSMA, collagen) · 4 druggable nodes
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 → - Invasion: proteases, adhesion & the invasive frontNode: CAF tracks · 1 druggable nodes
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 → - Tumour microenvironment (TME)Node: CAFs (FAP+) · 5 druggable nodes
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 →
Companion diagnostics and assays
Assay registry →No companion diagnostic in the registry measures this target.
Preclinical models
All models →No model entry for this target yet; check the cancer entries on the models page.
Open questions
All open questions →No open questions recorded for this target yet. Suggest one.
Ideas and companies
Key papers and the live literature
Preprints →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.
Export
The dossier as machine-readable 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 4.0.