Molecularbiology of the occupational urothelial tumors

第二次世界大战后，和歌山市的许多工厂生产了大量用于生产染料的芳香胺中间体。这些工厂的雇员中尿路上皮癌的发病率很高。我科一直在对这些患者进行流行病学研究，并报告了这些癌症和尿路上皮癌在一般人群中的生物学行为差异。然而，病理组织学研究并没有显示职业性尿路上皮癌的生物学行为与普通人群中发现的生物行为有明显差异。这些研究调查了是否可以使用分子生物学技术来检测这些差异。暴露于芳香胺的染料工人谷胱甘肽s -转移酶M1 （GSTM1）的遗传研究：我们将这些工人分为癌症组和非癌症组，研究了暴露于芳香胺的染料工人GSTM1基因的多态性。GSTM1基因缺陷个体在癌症组中有更强的倾向。我们还发现，与一般人群中膀胱癌患者的发病率相比，染料工人膀胱癌患者中这种基因缺陷的发病率有增加的趋势。职业性尿路上皮癌中p53基因突变的研究：p53蛋白在职业性上皮肿瘤中的过表达明显高于普通人群的上皮肿瘤。此外，职业上皮性肿瘤中p53基因突变的频率往往高于普通人群中此类肿瘤的频率。上皮生长因子受体（epithelial growth factor receptor， EGFR）在职业性尿路上皮癌中的表达研究：有报道称，膀胱肿瘤中EGFR的表达与肿瘤分级和疾病分期有关。我们发现，与自发性膀胱肿瘤相比，EGFR在职业性膀胱癌中过表达。少

After World War II, many factories in Wakayama City manufactured large quantities of aromatic amine intermediates for the production of dyes. There has been a high incidence of urothelial cancers among the employees of these factories. Our Department has been conducting epidemiological studies on these patients and reported differences in the biological behaviors of these cancers and urothelial cancers in the general population. Pathohistological studies, however, have not shown distinct differences between the biological behaviors of occupational urothelial cancers and those found in the general population. These studies investigated whether such differences could be detected using molecular biology techniques.1.Genetic studies of glutathione S-transferase M1 (GSTM1) in dye workers exposed to aromatic amines : We examined polymorphism of the GSTM1 gene among dye workers exposed to aromatic amines after dividing these workers into the cancer group and the non-cancer group. There was a … More strong tendency for GSTM1 gene-deficient individual to be in the cancer group. We also found a tendency toward an increased incidence of such gene deficiency in bladder cancer patients among dye workers compared with the incidence among bladder cancer patients in the general population.2.Investigation into the mutation of p53 gene in occupational urothelial cancers : p53 protein showed significantly higher overexpression in occupational epithelial tumors than in epithelial tumors in the general population. And also, the frequency of p53 gene mutation in occupational epithelial tumors tended to be higher than that in such tumors among the general population.3.Investigation into the expression of epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) in occupational urothelial cancer: It has been reported that expression of EGFR in bladder tumor participates in tumor grade and disease stage. We showed overexpression of EGFR in occupational bladder cancer compared with that in spontaneous bladder tumors. Less