Acknowledgments
We thank Guy Harris DO of Dmed (www.dmed.co.jp) for editing a draft of the manuscript, with funding by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C.
Funding
This study was funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research C (Grant number: 17K11384) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan.
Competing Interests
N. Kiyota reports grants from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, AstraZeneca Co., Ltd, Pfizer Co., Ltd, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Bayer outside the submitted work; and honoraria from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Merck Biopharma, AstraZeneca Co., Ltd, and Merck Sharp & Dohme. Y. Imamura reports honoraria from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, and MSD. K. Nibu reports honoraria from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Bayer, Merck Biopharma, Rakuten Medical, Inc., Abbott Medical Japan LLC, MSD, KYORIN Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. K. Sakai reports honoraria from Hitachi, Life Technologies Japan Ltd, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, and Qiagen, Inc. K. Nishio reports grants from Nippon Boehringer-Ingelheim, Eli Lilly Japan, SYSMEX, outside the submitted work; and honoraria from Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Pfizer, Eli Lilly Japan, MSD, Novartis Pharma, SymBio Pharmaceuticals, AstraZeneca Co., Ltd, Amgen, Merck Biopharma, Roche Diagnostics, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, Yakult Honsha, Guardant Health, Takeda pharmaceuticals, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Janssen Pharmaceutical, Daiichi-Sankyo, and Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. T. Nakatsura reports grants from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd outside the submitted work. S. Kitano reports grants from AstraZeneca Co., Ltd, Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, MSD, Eisai, Astellas, Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Takara Bio Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Daiichi-Sankyo, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Incyte, Takeda, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Abbvie, LOXO Oncology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development outside the submitted work; and honoraria from AstraZeneca Co., Ltd, Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Taiho, Novartis, MSD, Sumitomo Pharma, Eisai, Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Rakuten Medical, GlaxoSmithKline, Daiichi-Sankyo, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, ImmuniT Research Inc., Merck KGaA, Takeda, United Immunity, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Novartis, Janssen, and Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency. H. Minami reports grants from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, and MSD outside the submitted work; and honoraria from Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Merck Biopharma, Chugai Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. The other authors declare no potential conflicts of interest.
Author Contributions
Yoshiaki Nagatani: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, visualization, writing–original draft, writing–review and editing. Naomi Kiyota: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, funding acquisition, visualization, supervision, project administration, writing–original draft, writing–review and editing. Yoshinori Imamura: Data curation, Writing–review and editing. Taiji Koyama: Writing–review and editing. Yohei Funakoshi: Writing–review and editing. Masato Komatsu: Pathological assessments, resources, writing–review and editing. Tomoo Itoh: Pathological assessments, resources, writing–review and editing. Masanori Teshima: Data curation, writing–review and editing. Ken-Ichi Nibu: Data curation, writing–review and editing. Kazuko Sakai: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, resources, writing–review and editing. Kazuto Nishio: Conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, resources, writing–review and editing. Manami Shimomura: Resources, writing–review and editing. Tetsuya Nakatsura: Resources, writing–review and editing. Daiki Ikarashi: Data curation, formal analysis, writing–review and editing. Takayuki Nakayama: Data curation, formal analysis, writing–review and editing. Shigehisa Kitano: Conceptualization, supervision, resources, writing–review and editing. Hironobu Minami: Conceptualization, supervision, writing–review and editing.
Data Availability
The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Ethics approval
The study protocol was approved by Kobe University Hospital Ethics Committee (No.180232), and the study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.
Consent to participate
All patients provided written informed consent for the research use of archival formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue specimens.