Management of pancreatic cancer liver metastasis through investigating the mechanism of formation and remodeling its microenvironment.

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26462063
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Digestive surgery
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: FUJITA Hayato 九州大学, 医学研究院, 助教 (40611281)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 膵癌 / 肝転移 / 間質リモデリング

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study is to develop a new therapeutic strategy targeting the specific cell population and its molecular mechanism.
Microarray analysis revealed the lower miR-5100 expression in the highly metastatic pancreatic cancer cell, and we found the fact that the expression of PODXL, a target gene of miR-5100, correlates with the patients’ survival and the frequency of liver metastasis. PODXL knock down in the pancreatic cancer cell decreased its aggressive phenotype, suggesting that PODXL is a potential therapeutic target to inhibit liver metastasis.
Further, observation of the liver and lung metastasis mouse model revealed the fact that liver metastases contains significantly more α-SMA positive stromal cells than lung metastases.

Free Research Field

医歯薬学