Latent vulnerability of head and neck cancer-exploration and exploitation as a molecular target

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24592600
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Otorhinolaryngology
• Research Institution: National Hospital Organization, Kyushu Cancer Center
• Principal Investigator: MASUDA Muneyuki 独立行政法人国立病院機構(九州がんセンター臨床研究センター), その他部局等, その他 (90284504)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SUZUI Masumi 名古屋市立大学, 大学院医学研究科 分子医学講座 分子毒性学分野, 教授 (30347158) ; WAKASAKI Takahiro 九州大学, 医学研究院, 研究員 (10608871)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: 癌幹細胞 / 頭頸部癌 / epigenetics

Outline of Final Research Achievements

1.Through the public data analyses of TCGA, we found that Sox2 is highly associated with the induction of pluripotency in head and neck cancer. We developed stable head and neck cancer cell lines, which stably overexpress Sox2 and are proceeding to the genome-wide analyses.
2. We evaluated the correlation between the expression of CD44v9, a promising cancer stem cell marker of solid tumors, and clinicopathlogical factors and prognosis using tumor samples obtained from patients who were treated with chemoradioselection strategy in the National Kyushu Cancer Center. It was clearly demonstrated that concurrent chemoradiation-induced CD44v9 expression was significantly associated with unfavorable prognosis of the patients (PlosOne). This is the first report that elucidated the prognostic value of CD44v9 in head and neck cancer.

Free Research Field

頭頸部癌