Analysis of a Comprehensive Gene Expression Profile in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma by cDNA Microarray

2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 14571245
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Digestive surgery
• Research Institution: Kinki University
• Principal Investigator: SHIGEOKA Hironori Kinki University, School of Medicine, instructor, 医学部, 講師 (70247998)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): SHIOZAKI Hitoshi Kinki University, School of Medicine, professor, 医学部, 教授 (70144475) ; OKUNO Kiyotaka Kinki University, School of Medicine, professor, 医学部, 教授 (30169239) ; IMAMOTO Haruhikoo Kinki University, School of Medicine, instructor, 医学部, 講師 (80351609)
• Project Period (FY): 2002 – 2004
• Keywords: esophageal cancer / metastasis / cDNA array / prognosis

Research Abstract

Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most aggressive cancers in the digestive tract. Moreover, even when tumor invades just the submucosa, lymph node metastases frequently complicate this disease. There is a pressing need for new diagnostic modalities at the molecular level in order to identify metastatic disease.
Cellular functioning is highly sophisticated and specific to each cell line. This functioning is dependant upon the intricate and sophisticated expression of its unique genetic material. The highly complicated network of genes in various cell lines also make them vulnerable to aberrant mutations. It is thought that a large number of genetic alterations in esophageal cells account for carcinomatous behavior.
Recently, it has been found that gene alterations can be identified and followed by progression of cDNA arrays and can be specifically analyzed. As a result, gene expression analysis is advancing by leaps and bounds.
We have elucidated a genetic characterist ic of an esophageal cancer with cDNA array analysis and propose to use it in clinical application. In our Department of Surgery, we have frozen a resected surgical specimen from an esophageal cancer patient after having received the patient's consent: with this specimen, we are attempting to find the gene cluster related to lymph node metastasis, and to even predict a prognosis using neural network analysis method. We extracted RNA from more than 40 resected surgical specimens and subsequently analyzed DNA arrays. However, surgical resection of an esophageal cancer takes time, and it is difficult to isolate viable and correct RNA in order to gather the needed information, with the consequence that we could not analyze samples adequately. As a result, we now are acquiring biopsy specimens via endoscopy in order to raise the quality of RNA. We will examine these, and future, biopsy specimens with DNA array analysis and investigate the relationship between specific genes and clinical prognosis. This will lead to an enhanced level of clinical care and scientific knowledge in the field of surgical esophageal oncology.