2019 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Can TERT be a marker for prognosis and treatment decision making in thyroid cancer?
Project/Area Number |
16K09804
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Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
Section | 一般 |
Research Field |
Endocrinology
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Research Institution | Nagasaki University |
Principal Investigator |
MATSUSE Michiko 長崎大学, 原爆後障害医療研究所, 助教 (30533905)
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Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
光武 範吏 長崎大学, 原爆後障害医療研究所, 教授 (50404215)
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Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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Keywords | 甲状腺癌 / TERT |
Outline of Final Research Achievements |
The incidence of thyroid cancer has been increasing worldwide. Although most papillary thyroid carcinomas have a good prognosis, a small but certain fraction shows aggressive behavior. Therefore, a novel and well-performing molecular marker is needed. In the present study, we examined whether mutations in the promoter region of the telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) gene could serve as a molecular marker as described above. TERT promoter mutations were found to be useful as a prognostic molecular marker for thyroid cancer and were associated with resistance to radioiodine therapy. We also found that some TERT promoter mutation-negative cases expressed TERT mRNA, and those had a higher recurrence rate.
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Free Research Field |
内分泌学
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Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements |
TERTプロモーター変異は甲状腺癌の予後予測分子マーカーとして有用であること、また放射性ヨード治療抵抗性と関連することを明らかにした。さらにTERT mRNAも甲状腺癌の新たな分子マーカーとして有用であることを明らかにした。このマーカーによって術前に癌の悪性度を予測できれば、手術を行う・行わない、半葉切除か全摘かなどの治療方針の決定に重要な情報を提供できる。これにより、治療・管理の最適化、患者QOLの改善、ひいては医療経済の節約にもつながるものと考える。
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