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The application of radiotherapy to cancer is becoming
more important. However, the effectiveness of radiation is low for some kinds
of cancer, and the mechanisms of adverse effects which may occur in normal
tissues around the cancer lesion are not yet fully understood.
This group aims to determine the genetic characteristics
of individual patients and cancers in order to find genes whose expression
changes are related to
hypersensitivity of normal tissues to radiation and genes whose expression
status in malignant tumors is related to response to radiotherapy. If these
genetic characteristics can be determined, therapeutic effects and risks
of adverse reactions will be more predictable. Furthermore, it is expected
that
analysis of these molecular mechanisms will lead to the development of drugs
to enhance therapeutic effects and decrease adverse effects.
Another research theme of the RadioGenomics project is to develop a new procedure for inhibiting metastasis after local treatment by radiotherapy. Distant metastases after local treatment of tumors remain to be a major challenge to overcome for improvement of long survival. For the purpose of this, the efficacy of a combination immunotherapy of alpha-GalCer-pulsed dendritic cells injection and carbon ion irradiation has been investigated in an in vivo murine metastatic model.