Chinese medical experts have taken the lead in uncovering the mechanism of recurrence and metastasis of liver cancer

, Dec. 24 (Xinhua Chen Jing) Primary liver cancer ("liver cancer") is one of the most common malignant tumors in the world, with a large number of newly diagnosed liver cancer patients in China each year. Surgery is the most important means to cure liver cancer, but the rate of recurrence metastasis remains high within 5 years after surgery. Medical experts have been exploring mechanisms for postoperative recurrence and metastasis of liver cancer in the hope of developing new strategies for more effective treatment of liver cancer.
Fudan University affiliated Zhongshan Hospital disclosed on the 24th, China
, Fudan University (Zhongshan Hospital) Liver Cancer Research Institute, such as the team took the lead in revealing the early recurrence of liver cancer characteristic immune map and immune escape mechanism, for further enhance the efficacy of liver cancer immunotherapy, the search for effective liver cancer recurrence metastasis prevention and treatment of new strategies to provide more theoretical basis and experimental evidence.
, the researchers used single-cell sequencing techniques to analyze the immune micro-ecological differences between primary and relapsed tumors of liver cancer. Cell, an internationally renowned biology journal, published online the latest results of the team's collaboration with the Institute of Life Sciences of related companies, "Single-cell panorama analysis of the micro-ecosystem of early recurrence of liver cancer". It is understood that single-cell sequencing technology for micro-interpretation of cell behavior and immune mechanisms to provide a new tool, so that people can better understand the immune characteristics of relapsed tumors, so that it is possible to monitor and medication to better respond to tumor recurrence.
Jia told reporters that early tumor recurrence refers to the recurrence within two years after surgery, accounting for more than two-thirds of liver cancer recurrence after surgery, poor prognosis. The team found differences in the distribution of immune cell groups between relapsed liver cancer and primary liver cancer. Among liver cancer tumors that relapse early, there were significant differences in the number of immune cells associated with tumor immunity. Yang Xinrong, director of liver surgery at Sun Yat-sen Hospital affiliated with Fudan University, told reporters the same day that, on the face of it, in relapsed liver cancer, the body's immune recognition and attack ability against tumor cells should be stronger, tumor cells are less likely to escape. However, this is clearly not in line with the reality. From this, the team concluded that the mechanism of tumor immune escape from relapsed liver cancer is different from that of primary liver cancer.
found that tumor cells in relapsed liver cancer are cunning, can be confused, and the immune system is not easily detectable. According to the introduction, the relevant cells with immune memory, should have been rapid against the original secondary strike, play an efficient immune killing role; The tumor cells of relapsed liver cancer are a very cunning team, they also come from primary tumor cells, but they are a humble minority branch that is easily ignored by the immune system, he explains. Cells with immune memory do not recognize them, so allow these tumor cells to grow and the recurrence of the tumor is no longer controlled.
Jia explains with an image metaphor that dedescension cells that originally performed the function of education-related cells to kill tumors are "blackened" by relapsed tumor cells, which prevents them from being effectively activated to perform lethal functions.
reporters in the interview learned that in primary tumors, the body originally had a set of mechanisms to fill the immune loophole, but the tumor cells in relapsed liver cancer developed a "countermeasure", resulting in related cells can not be activated, can not play the function of immune killing.
that the project has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Shanghai Innovation Cluster and the Guangdong Natural Science Foundation.