Development of biomarkers for predicting recurrence by determining the metastatic ability of cancer cells

J Nippon Med Sch. 2021 Sep 14. doi: 10.1272/jnms.JNMS.2022_89-118. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAdjuvant chemotherapy has been carried out for patients with cancer who underwent curative resection, but it is basically not needed for patients without micro-metastatic lesions who undergo a perfectly curative surgical operation. The patients who need adjuvant chemotherapy are defined as those whose micro-metastases cannot be detected by imaging modalities in the other sites of the resective areas, despite curative resection for the primary sites. If biomarkers to efficiently evaluate the metastatic potential of each patient could be developed, we may be able to provide personalized adjuvant chemotherapy in the clinical setting. Actinin-4 (ACTN4, gene name ACTN4) is an actin-bundling protein that we identified in 1998 as a novel molecule involved in cancer invasion and metastasis. Protein overexpression of actinin-4 in cancer cells leads to the invasive phenotype, and patients with gene amplification of ACTN4 have a worse prognosis than patients with a normal copy number in some cancers, including pancreas, lung, and salivary gland cancers. In this review, the biological roles of actinin-4 for cancer invasion and metastasis are summarized, and the potential usefulness of actinin-4 as a biomarker for evaluation of metastatic ability is examined.PMID:34526453 | DOI:10.1272/jnms.JNMS.2022_89-118
Source: Journal of Nippon Medical School - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Source Type: research