Identification of novel genes involved in gastric cancer metastasis
Gastric cancer (GC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. An estimated 1 million new cases of GC occur annually and 784,000 deaths were reported in 2018. Although early-stage GC can be cured by surgery, the prognosis of metastatic or recurrent GC remains dismal. Thus, controlling unresectable disease is the main hurdle to improving the prognosis of GC patients. Recently, molecularly targeted antibodies such as trastuzumab and trastuzumab deruxtecan have been used for the treatment of HER-positive advanced GC. Antibodies targeting the T-cell-inhibitory programmed cell death-1 (PD-1), such as pembrolizumab and nivolumab, are promising particularly in the treatment of GC with microsatellite-instability-high status. However, these subgroups comprise a small fraction of GC and there is an urgent need to find other molecular targets to blockade, thereby potentially prolonging the lives of patients with unresectable GC. The goal of this study is to screen for novel GC-related genes by transcriptome analysis of metastatic GC tissue and identify novel genes involved in GC metastasis.