August 20, 2020
Hokkaido University
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group led by Assistant Professor Teruki Yanagi of the Department of Dermatology, Hokkaido University Graduate School of Medicine, and Professor Hiroshi Nishihara of the Clinical and Translational Research Center, Keio University School of Medicine (who also serves as Head of the Genomic Medicine Unit at the Cancer Center), has established a novel tumor model by transplanting tumor tissue from extramammary Paget's disease into immunodeficient mice.
Extramammary Paget's disease (EMPD) is a skin cancer that commonly occurs in areas such as the vulva of elderly individuals, and the number of patients is increasing as the population ages. To date, no chemotherapy has been developed for EMPD, and there are no drugs covered by insurance. Furthermore, no EMPD-derived cells or cancer tissues have been created as experimental models, making it impossible to develop chemotherapeutic agents.
The transplanted tumor tissue maintained the same morphology and genetic mutations as the original patient-derived tumor tissue, suggesting it could serve as a tumor model for EMPD. When various anticancer drugs were tested on this tumor tissue, the results indicated that anticancer drugs used for breast cancer may be effective. Furthermore, genomic analysis of this tumor tissue revealed a mutation in the ERBB2 gene, and a molecular targeted drug (a drug that targets a specific molecule) for this mutation was also found to be effective. This new skin cancer model is considered useful for future elucidation of the pathology of EMPD and the development of new therapies.
The findings of this research were published online in the journal Oncogene on July 28, 2020.
For the full press release, please see below.