Translational cancer research towards Thailand 4.0

Abstract

Cancer is still a major cause of mortality in the Thai population. The heterogeneity and complexity of cancer make this disease often result in ineffective treatment and a fatal outcome. Primary prevention for a knownrisk cancer is one way to minimize the number of new cancer cases; however, effective treatment with reasonable cost-effectiveness is important for cancer patients. Basic and preclinical cancer research are necessary for better and deeper understanding of the nature of cancer. Several research initiatives should be implemented to translate the preclinical developments to clinical outcome. High specificity and sensitivity of tumour markers in serum or secretory fluids are helpful for diagnosis of cancer before advanced, high cost, or invasive diagnoses are implemented. A set of potential markers instead of a single marker should be researched to increase the diagnostic power of the tests for a particular cancer. Simplicity, low cost, and highly effective diagnostic power of the test is also required to validate a test for clinical use. The knowledge generated at the molecular level together with the advanced technologies of next-generation sequencing, cellular and molecular biology, and computational biology, provide a new trend of precise treatment against individual cancers. Histoculture drug response assays or in vitro chemo-sensitivity assays, genomic profiling of tumours by next-generation sequencing, drug repositioning for cancer, and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy are exciting approaches that lead to precise and effective therapy for cancer patients. In this review, several new directions for the precise diagnosis and effective treatments of cancer are highlighted.

Overexpression of HMGN3 nucleosome binding protein is associated with tumor invasion and TGF-? expression in cholangiocarcinoma

“…However, the study of HMGN3 in cancers has not yet been reported. Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA), a cancer of bile duct epithelium, is high prevalence in Northeastern Thailand [11]. Liver fluke (Opisthorchis viverrini; Ov) infection is a major risk factor that induces chronic inflammation and stimulates inflammatory cytokine secretion, such as transforming growth factor β (TGF-β) and interleukin-6 (IL6) [12,13], leading to malignant transformation of bile duct cells [14].…”

Effect of SNPs in genes regulating cell cycle control, apoptosis and inflammation on lung cancer susceptibility of northern Thai population

“…In Thailand, lung cancer ranked second in mortality rate among Thai males, preceded by liver cancer in 2015. Lung cancer has high incidence in the north (especially the three provinces: Chiang Mai, Lampang and Lamphun) while liver cancer is extremely high in the north-east [2,3]. Based on the most recent volume of the Cancer in Thailand, the annual age-standardized incidence rates per 100 000 (for the years 2013-2015) of lung cancer for males and females, respectively, were 32.1 and 21.6 in Chiang Mai, 32.9 and 19.5 in Lampang and 37.9, and 19.8 in Lamphun [3].…”