Establish the early diagnosis of esophageal cancer using SNP array and ctDNA sequencing.

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K15323
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 50020:Tumor diagnostics and therapeutics-related
• Research Institution: Kagoshima University (2019-2021); Kyushu University (2018)
• Principal Investigator: Tsuruda Yusuke 鹿児島大学, 鹿児島大学病院, 医員 (70812767)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 放射線化学療法 / 治療抵抗性 / 治療感受性 / デコンボルーション / CAF

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Prior to building just an early diagnosis of esophageal cancer, we aimed to establish the feasible measure to improve the clinical outcome of the postoperative esophageal cancer cases. We scrutinized a biomarker to identify the resistant cases to the CRT treatment immediately against esophageal cancer cases and conducted RNA Seq in pretreatment primary tumors from 16 sensitive cases and those from 17 resistance cases at first. Consequently, the CRT-resistant issues indicated an abundant expression of CAF (Cancer-associated fibroblast) score than the CRT-sensitive cases with a statistical significance. Therefore, we will discover the CRT-resistant marker related to the malignant CAF accumulation and apply it to the liquid biopsy assay for clinical diagnosis.

Free Research Field

消化器外科

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究成果によりCRT抵抗性に関わるがん微小環境側における制御機構を解明できる。すなわち多様性に富む癌細胞に対して、がん微小環境における変異は普遍的に制御できる可能性が高く、臨床的に有意義である。また、放射線治療は局所療法のなかでも低侵襲であり様々な癌腫で用いられている。本解析の結果得られるCAFを制御する分子は食道がん以外でも有用な可能性があり、社会的意義は大きい。