The significance of c-myc expression in pancreatic cancer

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K10203
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Digestive surgery
• Research Institution: Osaka International Cancer Institute
• Principal Investigator: Hirofumi Akita 地方独立行政法人大阪府立病院機構大阪国際がんセンター(研究所), その他部局等, 医長 (70528463)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 永野 浩昭 山口大学, 大学院医学系研究科, 教授 (10294050) ; 後藤 邦仁 大阪大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 助手 (10362716) ; 小林 省吾 地方独立行政法人大阪府立病院機構大阪国際がんセンター(研究所), その他部局等, 副部長 (30452436) ; 高橋 秀典 地方独立行政法人大阪府立病院機構大阪国際がんセンター(研究所), その他部局等, 副部長 (90601120)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 膵臓癌 / c-myc / 癌幹細胞 / 予後

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The mild stimulation of c-myc by using tet-myc activation system lead pancreatic cancer cell lines to spindle-like cells, increasing the spheroid formation ability and tumorigenesis potential. However, when exceeding a threshold level, c-MYC induced loss of proliferation potential and a pro-apoptotic program. Next we examined the relationship between c-myc expression and clinical outcome after radical resection by using 65 pancreatic cancer patients. Patients with high c-myc expression showed a significantly worse prognosis both in overall survival and disease-free survival(p<0.001, p=0.003). In 45 patients with preoperative chemoradiotherapy, there was no significant difference between c-myc expression and pathological effect. In conclusion, c-myc could be related to the maintenance of cancer stem cell in pancreatic cancer and high c-myc expression in pancreatic cancer showed poor prognosis with showing the resistance of preoperative chemoradiotherapy.

Free Research Field

消化器外科