Early stage diagnosis of gastric cancer by plasma microRNA and tumor-free DNA

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K10608
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Digestive surgery
• Research Institution: Teikyo University
• Principal Investigator: Fukushima Ryoji 帝京大学, 医学部, 教授 (50228897)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 飯沼 久恵 帝京大学, 医学部, 講師 (30147102)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 胃癌 / PDL-1 / PDL-2 / 予後 / バイオマーカー / 免疫チェックポイント阻害薬 / 免疫療法 / リキッドバイオプシー

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The prognosis of gastric cancer (GC) patients with advanced stage is still poor. Nivolumab has been used for metastatic GC in Japan from 2017 as an immunotherapeutic agent. Nivolumab can block the binding between PD-1 of lymphocyte and PD-L1/PD-L2 of tumor cell. However, the prognostic predicting role of PD-L1/PD-L2 expression is not clear. Thus, the aim of this investigation was to look at the correlation between the PD-L1/PD-L2 and clinicopathological factors of GC patients.
The expression of PD-L1/PD-L2 in the serum and tumor tissue of 242 GC patients who underwent surgery were analyzed. The expressions of PD-L1/PD-L2 in the serum were higher than those of normal control. There was no significant correlation between the expression of PD-L1/PD-L2 in the serum and tumor tissue of gastric cancer patients and clinicopathological factors and of patients’ survival.
It is concluded that the expression of PD-L1/PD-L2 in gastric cancer patients was not estimated as prognostic factor.

Free Research Field

胃癌の治療、外科代謝栄養

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

ニボルマブをはじめとする免疫チェックポイント阻害薬の発展は、癌治療におけるブレイクスルーでゲームチェンジャーとなりうる。したがって、関連分野の研究は今後ますますその重要性が増すものと考えられる。PD-L1/PD-L2は、ニボルマブの作用点に関連する分子である。今回の検討では、PD-L1/PD-L2発現は胃癌の臨床病理学的因子、生存率との関連を認めなかったが、この発現の詳細を検討することは、今後の免疫チェックポイント阻害薬治療発展の一助になるものと考えられる。