Available Technologies

Background

Hypoxic regions (regions with a decreased partial pressure of oxygen) in malignant solid tumors are a key environmental factor that enhances the resistance of cancer cells to radiotherapy and anticancer chemotherapy. Lower oxygen levels in tumors are also known to be associated with advanced malignancy. Therefore, assessing the volume of hypoxic regions and the degree of hypoxia in tumor tissues is critical not only for monitoring their pathological conditions and predicting therapeutic effects on them but also for developing a novel strategy for personalized cancer therapy. However, currently available methods to detect hypoxia are invasive such as PET imaging and IHC on biopsy.

Description and Advantages

Researchers at Kyoto University found that the expression and secretion of SPINK 1 are immediately increased upon severe but not mild hypoxia and returned to their basal levels after reoxygenation (Fig 1). In addition, they found a positive correlation between the levels of SPINK 1 in plasma and the volume of hypoxia in the tumors (Fig 2). Furthermore, they confirmed that SPINK 1 increases the radioresistance of cancer cells (Fig 3). These findings suggest that SPINK 1 can be used as a "minimally invasive plasma biomarker" to monitor "tumor hypoxia" and "tumor malignancy".