TEK as a Radioligand Therapy Target
TEK, TEK receptor tyrosine kinase, is a cell-surface protein (RTK). In Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry, TEK staining is highest in colorectal cancer (100% of samples positive), bladder cancer (91% of samples positive) and breast cancer (91% of samples positive). Evidence on whether TEK internalizes is mixed. Clinical status: Clinical-stage (up to phase 2, any modality).
Is TEK a good radioligand therapy target?
Scored against the six criteria that decide whether a protein can become a radioligand therapy:
- ✅ Cell-surface accessibility: Localized to the cell surface, so a radioligand can reach it from circulation.
- ⚠️ Tumor expression: Medium IHC staining in colorectal cancer, 100% of samples positive.
- ⚠️ Internalization: Mixed evidence.
- ✅ Clinical precedent: Clinical-stage (up to phase 2, any modality)
- ❔ Shedding: Not yet assessed.
- ❔ Normal-tissue dosimetry: Check kidney, liver, bone marrow and salivary expression in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas.
TEK expression in cancer
Protein expression of TEK across 20 cancer types from Human Protein Atlas immunohistochemistry. The score is a weighted staining intensity from 0 to 1; "% positive" is the share of patient samples with detectable staining.
| Cancer type | IHC score | Level | % positive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorectal Cancer | 0.33 | Medium | 100% |
| Bladder Cancer | 0.33 | Medium | 91% |
| Breast Cancer | 0.30 | Medium | 91% |
| Prostate Cancer | 0.27 | Medium | 82% |
| Melanoma | 0.25 | Medium | 67% |
| Cervical Cancer | 0.25 | Medium | 67% |
| Neuroendocrine Tumors | 0.25 | Medium | 50% |
| Gastric Cancer | 0.24 | Medium | 73% |
| Liver Cancer | 0.24 | Medium | 64% |
| Skin Cancer | 0.21 | Medium | 64% |
| Kidney Cancer | 0.17 | Low | 50% |
| Pancreatic Cancer | 0.17 | Low | 50% |
| Ovarian Cancer | 0.15 | Low | 46% |
| Endometrial Cancer | 0.12 | Low | 36% |
| Testicular Cancer | 0.11 | Low | 33% |
| Head and Neck Cancer | 0.08 | Low | 25% |
| Thyroid Cancer | 0.08 | Low | 25% |
| Lung Cancer | 0.06 | Low | 17% |
| Lymphoma | 0.03 | Low | 8% |
Not detected by IHC in: glioma.
Is TEK internalized?
Uncertain. The abstracts do not provide a clear conclusion about the internalization or endocytosis of protein TEK. There is an investigation of internalization in the study, but it focuses on granulosa-lutein cells and their reduced capacity to internalize Dil-Ac-LDL, which does not directly clarify the behavior of TEK upon ligand/antibody binding.
Sources: PMID 33377483 · PMID 22343031. AI-extracted from abstracts, so verify before citing.
TEK clinical trials
Clinical-stage (up to phase 2, any modality). Nuclens hasn't indexed trials for TEK yet. Search ClinicalTrials.gov for TEK trials.
TEK normal tissue expression
Normal-tissue expression in dose-limiting organs (kidney, liver, bone marrow, salivary glands) drives radioligand dosimetry risk. Nuclens is re-validating its normal-tissue values, so they are not shown here yet. See TEK in the Human Protein Atlas tissue atlas, and read how normal-tissue expression predicts radioligand dosimetry risk.
TEK gene essentiality (DepMap)
CRISPR knockout effect across 1252 cancer cell lines: 0.04 (not essential). Radioligands kill by radiation, not by blocking the target, so essentiality matters less than for inhibitors. A non-essential target can still be an excellent radioligand target.
Related colorectal cancer radioligand targets
c-MET (MET) · HER3 (ERBB3) · FAP · EGFR · CEA (CEACAM5) · EPCAM · SSTR2 · STEAP2
See all radioligand therapy targets in colorectal cancer.
See how TEK ranks against 15,000 targets for your indication.
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Subcellular localization: UniProt via Open Targets (CC BY 4.0 / CC0). Tumor immunohistochemistry: Human Protein Atlas (CC BY-SA 4.0). Clinical trials: ClinicalTrials.gov (public domain). Gene essentiality: DepMap (CC BY 4.0). Internalization and shedding: AI-extracted from PubMed abstracts, so verify against the cited papers before relying on them. Nuclens is a first-pass triage layer, not a substitute for wet-lab validation or clinical dosimetry. Derived expression data on this page is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.