Analysis of tumor immunity and radiation therapy for head and neck cancer by immunostaining and liquid biopsy

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K17147
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 52040:Radiological sciences-related
• Research Institution: Sapporo Medical University
• Principal Investigator: Fukushima Yuki 札幌医科大学, 医学部, 助教 (60749787)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 頭頸部癌 / 放射線治療 / 腫瘍免疫

Outline of Final Research Achievements

We investigated the effects of expression of proteins involved in tumor immunity that affect the outcome of radiation therapy for oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. In pretreatment biopsy specimens of definitive radiotherapy cases performed for oropharyngeal cancer, immunostaining using FoxP3 antibody, which is a marker of regulatory T cells, showed that heavy infiltrated FoxP3 cases were significantly better in the prognosis. Addition to conventional prognostic factors such as p16 may lead to improved prediction accuracy of treatment results.

Free Research Field

放射線治療

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

中咽頭癌において、腫瘍免疫関連蛋白の一つであるFoxp3が多く浸潤している症例で放射線治療成績が良好であることが研究成果として示された。今後癌細胞の腫瘍免疫関連蛋白を用いた放射線感受性予測の臨床応用や、個別化放射線治療の実用化の一歩となる成果と考えられる。