Abstract
Purpose :
A fundamental goal of cancer biology research is to identify factors that safely inhibit tumorigenesis. The human lens capsular epithelium (HLCE), although mitotically active, does not naturally develop tumors. Given this unique property, it is reasonable to expect that the HLCE has been a major target of investigation by cancer biologists. To determine the extent to which the natural, tumor-resistant properties of the HLCE have been investigated, we performed a systematic review of the literature, as well as of funded projects over the past four decades.
Methods :
The PubMed and NIH RePORTER databases were searched using the terms, “lens”, “epithelium”, and “cancer”. Our inclusion criteria consisted of original research articles and funded projects directly investigating the tumor-resistant properties of the HLCE. Three researchers independently assessed titles, abstracts, and the full text of papers. Database searches were completed in December of 2022.
Results :
Our PubMed database search yielded 381 published articles since 1948. However, none of the articles met our inclusion criteria. Our NIH RePORTER database search yielded 1,515 funded projects since 1985. Consistent with our PubMed results, none of the NIH funded projects met our inclusion criteria.
Conclusions :
Our results indicate that there has been no direct investigation into the innate, tumor-resistant properties of the HLCE. This is surprising, as investigation into the HLCE could provide key insights into our understanding of cancer. We report these findings in a hope to increase awareness of the remarkable nature of the HLCE, and to spur research into its tumor-resistant properties.
This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.