Advanced research on cancer

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This priority area, termed "Advanced research on cancer", is aimed at seeking cutting-edge cancer research by incorporating new technologies, disciplines and newly developing fields. In the past five years, much of the new insights have been gained about the mechanisms of oncogenic cell signaling and its suppression, particularly on the role of interferons and TGF-β, both of which function as negative regulator of cell growth. It also became possible to visualize behaviors of oncogene products in living cells and this is a new, important step to our understanding of cell transformation. New molecules have also been identified, which regulate cell adhesion and movement, and their functional analyses have been pursued; these include Claudins and WAVEs and these studies offered new insights in infiltration and metastasis of cancer cells. In addition, much progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms of apoptosis of cancerous cells and the clearance of such dying cells. It is particularly worth mentioning that one of the research project in this priority area spawned a new translational research project, that is, identification of HB-EGF as the target of ovarian cancers and application of CRM197, a mutant form of diphtheria toxin that inhibits HB-EGF, for therapy of this form of cancer. Overall, these achievements are represented in over several thousands of published papers, many of which appeared in journals such as Nature. Many collaborations with industries have been in progress with the aim of developing new drugs for cancer.