2009 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

The expectation of aromatase inhibitor as a strategy for treatment of Japanese female pulmonary adenocarcinoma

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20890014
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (Start-up)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Human pathology
Research Institution	Tohoku University
Principal Investigator	ABE Keiko Tohoku University, 大学院・医学系研究科, 助教 (80455782)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2009
Keywords	肺癌 / 女性 / アロマターゼ / ホルモン受容体
Research Abstract	Highly concordant coexpression of estrogen receptor beta and aromatase, one of the estrogen-producing enzyme, was observed among non-small cell carcinoma of the lung. Pulmonary adenocarcinoma, which is the most frequently observed among Japanese female lung cancer patients, is divided into two categories, such as bronchio-alveolar carcinoma (BAC) and non-BAC. BAC is defined as non-invasive adenocarcinoma by WHO criteria, otherwise non-BAC is invasive carcinoma and has more malignant potential. The co-expression of both aromatase and ER beta was more frequently observed among non-BAC of the lung. Furthermore, the proportion of ER beta in non-BAC of the lung was correlated with the proliferative activity of cancer cells.