# COLORECTAL CANCER METASTASIS

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR · 1987 · $141,472

## Abstract

Colorectal carcinoma is the second greatest cause of death in the United
States among all types of neoplasms.  The mortality of this disease is the
result of regional and systemic metastasis.  Although a variety of
biological and biochemical properties that determine the metastatic
capability of mammary carcinoma, lung carcinoma, melanoma and lymphosarcoma
have been elucidated in experimental animal model systems, little is known
about the mechanisms and determinants of colorectal carcinoma metastasis in
cancer patients because of the lack of a suitable experimental model.

Since the most commonly use therapeutic procedure for colorectal carcinoma
is surgery, a relatively large number of fresh tumor specimens, together
with comprehensive patient records, are available at the M.D. Anderson
Hospital.  In the proposed project, we will develop a rapid, micro-scale
analytical method for the examination of biochemically definable cell
surface properties in colorectal cancer which have been proposed to be
related to metastatic behavior of tumor cells in experimental systems.
These include various types of cell surface glycoproteins, extracellular
proteoglycans, and hydrolytic enzymes responsible for the destruction of
tissue integrity, such as heparanase and type IV collagenase.  When
relatively large tumor tissues are available, the targeted molecules will
be purified from them.  Antibodies (monoclonal or polyclonal) against the e
molecules together with specific histochemical agents for glycoconjugates
will be histochemically utilized in order to examine localization and
intercellular heterogeneity in the distribution of the molecules.

The results of this proposed study will provide new information concerning
the cell surface properties of the highly metastatic subpopulation of
primary colorectal tumors.  The development of this technology could serve
as a useful tool for prognosticating matastasis of this disease.  Also, the
results may be a basis for the study of specific antimentastatic therapy
which can be applied in concert with other therapeutic modalities of the
primary tumor.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 3178159
- **Project number:** 5R01CA039319-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF TX MD ANDERSON CAN CTR
- **SAM.gov UEI:** S3GMKS8ELA16
- **Principal Investigator:** TATSURO IRIMURA
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 1987
- **Award amount:** $141,472
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 1985-04-01 → 1988-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/3178159

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 3178159, COLORECTAL CANCER METASTASIS (5R01CA039319-03). Retrieved via MORVS 2026-10-25 from https://api.morvs.ai/grant/nih/3178159. Licensed CC0.

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