Does cellular senescence play an important role in the prognosis of sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas?

• Published in: World journal of surgical oncology Vol. 19; no. 1; pp. 79 - 4
• Main Authors: Kimura, Toshihisa, Togawa, Tamotsu, Iida, Atsushi, Noriki, Sakon, Sato, Yasunori, Goi, Takanori
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 16.03.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Aging; Cancer; Carcinoma; Care and treatment; Cell cycle; Cells; Cellular Senescence; Chemotherapy; Correspondence; Development and progression; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Evaluation; Extracellular matrix; Humans; Long-term survival; Medical prognosis; Metastases; Metastasis; Pancreas; Pancreatic cancer; Pancreatic carcinoma; Pancreatic Neoplasms; Prognosis; Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas; Senescence; Signal transduction; Surgery; Survival; TGF-β; Tumorigenesis; Japan; Epithelial-mesenchymal transition; Long-term survival; TGF-β; cellular senescence; Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas
• ISSN: 1477-7819; 1477-7819
• DOI: 10.1186/s12957-021-02177-7

Sarcomatoid carcinoma of the pancreas (SCP) is an extremely rare and aggressive disease with poor prognosis. We have already reported a rare case of SCP with long-term survival. In the present article, we investigate the underlying mechanisms of patient's long-term survival from the point of view of cellular senescence which was examined in three SCP cases, including our reported case, using immunohistochemical analysis. The expressions of cellular senescence marker were observed in the sarcomatous component of the patient with long-term survival but not observed in the other patients with short- term survival. Thus, we can speculate that cellular senescence might play an important role in the reduction of the cell proliferative and metastatic activities of sarcomatous cells, leading to long-term patient survival.