A lifework at Juntendo University-the production of experimental gastroenterological cancer in animals, and the clinicopathological study of colon cancer.

Abstract

I entered Juntendo University School of Medicine in April 1960 and retired in March 2006, So I had a good life for 46 years at Juntendo University. After graduating from Juntendo University, I studied pathology for two years, and then joined the department of gastroenterological surgery where I worked for 37 years. During this period, I studied the production of experimental cancer models, chemotherapy and clinicopathological examination of gastroenterological cancer. At that time, it was reported that Mastomys-a rodent from South Africa-spontaneously developed gastric tumor due to histamine-producing carcinoid. Then I demonstrated the production of serotonin in gastric carcinoid except histamine immunohistochemically. I was the first to succeed in producing canine models of gastric, colonic and pancreatic cancer by the administration of N-ethyl-N′-nitro-N-nitrosoguanidine (ENNG). With regard to chemotherapy, I studied 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) tissue concentrations in resected gastric and colonic cancer specimens, and serum concentrations prior to and after resection of gastric cancer, and the relationship between 5-FU and 5-FU-related enzyme genes in colorectal cancer. In the clinicopathologic examination of colon cancer, I examined the possibility of early detection by measuring the ratio of primary and secondary bile acids in the feces of colorectal cancer patients, and studied the immunohistochemical characteristics of colonic cancer using resected colonic cancer specimens. Finally, I analyzed genomic copy-number aberrations related with node and organ metastases, and the relationship between sex and chromosomal aberrations in colorectal cancer using comparative genomic hybridization (CGH).