Elucidation of the mechanism of chemotherapy resistance relating the obese signaling pathway

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K19171
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 57060:Surgical dentistry-related
• Research Institution: Gunma University
• Principal Investigator: Kina Mika 群馬大学, 医学部附属病院, 医員 (80578914)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 内臓脂肪型肥満 / 口腔癌 / 組織学的分化度 / BMI

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Chemotherapy resistance is a major cause of cancer progression. To investigate the association between obesity and chemotherapy sensitivity in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), here we performed retrospective analysis in 40 patients with OSCC. We detected significantly higher frequency of pathological complete response in poorly or moderately differentiated cases than in well differentiated cases(P<0.05). Association analyses comparing the BMI with histological differentiation revealed that OSCC of male patients with 29≦BMI has significantly higher rate of poorly or moderately differentiation than those of patients with BMI<29. Cytokine expression analysis using TCGA(The Cancer Genome Atlas) indicated IL-6 is significantly enriched in poorly or moderately differentiated Head and Neck SCC. This study expands understanding of the involvement of obesity in OSCC pathogenesis and presents insights that have the potential to utilize BMI as patients screening for neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Free Research Field

口腔外科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

研究成果の社会的意義は、口腔扁平上皮癌患者が、内臓脂肪型肥満であるかそうでないかという、簡便な基準で術前の抗癌剤治療を施行するかしないかの判断材料となりうる可能性があることである。