epithelial cell adhesion molecule; Ep-CAM; tumor-associated Ca+2 signal transducer 1; major gastrointestinal tumor-associated protein GA733-2; epithelial cell surface antigen; epithelial glycoprotein; EGP; epithelial glycoprotein 314; EGP314; hEGP314; adenocarcinoma-associated antigen; KSA; KS 1/4 antigen; cell surface glycoprotein trop-1; CD326 (EPCAM, GA733-2, M1S2, M4S1, MIC18, TACSTD1, TROP1)

Function

• may act as a physical homophilic interaction molecule between intestinal epithelial cells (IECs) & intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) at the mucosal epithelium for providing immunological barrier as a first line of defense against mucosal infection

Structure

• monomer
• belongs to the EPCAM family
• contains 1 thyroglobulin type-1 domain

Compartment

• membrane; single-pass type 1 membrane protein

Expression

• expressed in almost all epithelial cell membranes but not on mesodermal or neural cell membranes
• found on the surface of adenocarcinomas

Pharmacology

• target of sacituzumab govitecan-hziy (Trodelvy), a drug FDA-approved for refractory triple-negative breast cancer

Laboratory

• circulating tumor cell count identifies & quantifies EpCAM produced by epithelial tumor cells (carcinomas)

More general terms

• glycoprotein
• tumor (cancer or CA) antigen
• CD antigen

Database

• UniProt: http://www.uniprot.org/uniprot/P16422.html
• Entrez gene: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=gene&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Graphics&list_uids=4072
• OMIM: https://mirror.omim.org/entry/185535