2020/12/23
Keio University School of Medicine
A research group led by Professor Toshiro Sato and Assistant Professor Shinya Sugimoto of The Sakaguchi Laboratory (Organoid Medicine), and Assistant Professor Kazuhiro Togasaki and Professor Takanori Kanai of the Department of Internal Medicine (Gastroenterology), all from the Keio University School of Medicine, has for the first time clarified the formation process of signet-ring cell carcinoma—a type of diffuse-type gastric cancer that is highly malignant, spreads without appearing on the surface of the gastric mucosa, and is sometimes also known as "linitis plastica"—by using patient-derived organoids.
Diffuse-type gastric cancer, which is particularly malignant among gastric cancers, is often composed of two types of cancer cells—signet-ring cell carcinoma and poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma—and has been feared as a cancer for which targeted therapies that attack only specific cancer cells are ineffective. The mechanism by which diffuse-type gastric cancer is formed from such different types of cells was unknown.
In this study, the research team cultured cancer cells from patients with diffuse-type gastric cancer using a technology called organoids and demonstrated that poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma transforms into signet-ring cell carcinoma—previously thought to be a separate type of cancer—in response to the surrounding environment. Furthermore, the research team also succeeded in transforming normal gastric cells into signet-ring cell carcinoma through gene editing and a proprietary culture technique.
This study is the first to clarify how signet-ring cell carcinoma is formed in response to genetic mutations and the tumor microenvironment, and it is expected to serve as a foothold for the development of new curative treatments for gastric cancer in the future.
The results of this research were published in the online edition of the American scientific journal "Gastroenterology" on November 16, 2020 (US Eastern Time).
Please see below for the full press release.