Information Exchange on Cancer Research with North American

最近的癌症研究进展表明，癌症是由多个基因的表达破坏和/或损伤诱导和发展的。尤其是致癌基因和抗癌基因与癌症有着密切的关系。这些基因编码细胞生长和细胞周期调控的信号转导分子，在癌细胞中被点突变和扩增激活或缺失。参与细胞间相互作用和细胞与底物相互作用的其他基因可能在转移中很重要。以分子为基础的癌症知识将被应用于诊断和治疗。在癌症中被激活的信号蛋白或癌基因产物的三维结构数据对于设计抑制癌细胞生长的分子是有用的。缺失或功能不正常的基因将通过基因疗法得到修正。这些具有挑战性的方法在应用于更多的癌症治疗与完善的方案相结合时将会很有前途。在北美、加拿大和美国等国家，包括人类基因组计划、实验动物基因操作和基因治疗开发在内的癌症基础研究和应用研究取得了很大进展。在过去的十年里，日本的癌症研究也取得了显著的进展，这使得北美和日本在这一领域的科学家之间进行了有效的合作和信息交流。因此，在这个国际科学研究计划中，我们在过去三年中派出了51名日本科学家，以促进信息交流与合作，并在北美的国际会议上展示他们的进展。信息交流的代表性专题如下。癌基因/原癌基因反基因转录信号转导细胞周期调控病毒肿瘤细胞粘附和转移凋亡遗传不稳定性化学致癌动物基因操纵结构生物学分子诊断基因治疗免疫治疗放射治疗分子病因学较少

Recent progress on cancer research has revealed that cancer is induced and developed by subverted expression and/or damage of multiple genes. Especially genes called oncogenes and antioncogenes are deeply involved in cancer. These genes, encoding signal transduction molecules for cell growth and regulators of cell cycle, are activated by point mutations and amplifications or missing by deletion in cancer cells. The other genes that are involved in cell-to-cell interaction and cell-to-substrate interaction are likely to be important in metastasis.The knowledge on a molecular basis on cancer is going to be applied for diagnostic and therapeutic benefits. Data on three dimensional structures of the signaling proteins or oncogene products that are activated in cancer are useful to design a molecule that would inhibit growth of cancer cells. Genes that are missing or not properly functioning would be amended by gene therapy. These challenging methodologies would be promising when applied in … More cancer therapy in combination with well established protocols.Basic cancer research and application research that include human genome project, gene manupilation in experimental animals, and development of gene therapy have been highly progressed in the countries in north America, Canada and United States. Progress in Japanese cancer research is also remarkable in the last decade, allowing effective collaboration, information exchange between the scientists of this field in north America and Japan. Therefore, in this International Scientific Research Program, we sent 51 Japanese scientists during the last three years to promote information exchange and collaboration and for presentation of their progresses in the international meetings in north America. Representative topics for information exchange were following.Oncogenes/protooncogenes Antioncogenes TranscriptionSignal transduction Cell cycle regulation Viral oncologyCell adhesion and metastasis Apoptosis Genetic instabilityChemical carcinogenesis Gene manupilation in animals Structural biologyMolecular diagnosis Gene therapy Immuno-therapyRadiation therapy Molecular etiology Less