China News Service, May 16. According to Hong Kong's "Sing Tao Daily", cancer has always been the "number one killer" in Hong Kong, among which the incidence of gastric cancer ranks sixth, and about 1,200 people are diagnosed each year.
A study by the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has found that STK3 kinase, traditionally considered by the medical community to inhibit cancer, stimulates gastric cancer to worsen and reduces the survival rate of patients.
The team hopes to develop inhibitors to prolong the lifespan of patients.
The research was conducted last summer by Chen Weinuo and Mei Jinwei, third-year medical students of the Faculty of Medicine of CUHK, together with Du Jiahui, Head of the Department of Pathological Anatomy and Cytology, Assistant Professor Kang Wei, and graduate student Chen Bonan. Cancer's STK3 kinase is highly expressed in different types of gastric cancer cell samples. After clinical evaluation, it was found that the higher the kinase level, the worse the patient's condition and the lower the survival rate.
Through single-cell analysis, the team found that STK3 kinase promotes cell division and gene replication, which leads to cancer progression.
As for whether STK3 kinase will affect the condition of other cancer patients, Chen Weinuo pointed out that he has analyzed the data of breast cancer and colorectal cancer patients and found that the number of STK3 kinase in patients is also highly expressed.
The research has been published in the international medical journal "Molecular Cancer". Kang Wei pointed out that the research has sparked heated discussions in the Mainland, but in the long run, in vivo experiments on animals are needed to confirm the effect of kinases on cancer.
Chen Weinuo, a medical student who participated in the research, was inspired to study the "Hippo Signaling Pathway" (medical term), "Searching the Internet for data on gene expression in gastric cancer patients, and found that there are a large number of STK3 kinases in cancer patients. Research to understand the reasons behind it.”