*Division of Molecular Pathology

†Department of Analytical Pathology, National Cancer Center Research Institute

‡Department of Molecular Oncology

§Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, Jikei University Graduate School of Medicine

∥Hepatobiliary Pancreatic Surgery Division, National Cancer Center Hospital

¶Division of Innovative Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, National Cancer Center EPOC, Tokyo, Japan

N.H.: study concept and design. U.N.I., Y.I., and N.H.: acquisition of data, analysis and interpretation of data. U.N.I.: drafting of the manuscript. M.S. and N,H.: critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content. N.H.: obtained funding and study supervision. Y.I., M.E., K.S., and N.H.: technical or material support.

Conflicts of Interest and Source of Funding: This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, #21K07139 (N.H.), and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, #21ck0106540 (N.H.). The authors have disclosed that they have no significant relationships with, or financial interest in, any commercial companies pertaining to this article.

Correspondence: Nobuyoshi Hiraoka, MD, PhD, Division of Molecular Pathology, National Cancer Center Research Institute, 5-1-1 Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0045, Japan (e-mail: [email protected]).

Supplemental Digital Content is available for this article. Direct URL citations appear in the printed text and are provided in the HTML and PDF versions of this article on the journal's website, www.ajsp.com.