Photo/Illutration Yasutomo Nasu, second from right, an Okayama University vice president and executive director for research, speaks at a March 24 news conference along other university officials. (Ayaka Kibi)

OKAYAMA--A professor of cell physiology at Okayama University faced accusations of fabricating an academic paper on cancer research, prompting The Asahi Shimbun to delete the offending article from its online coverage.

AJW, the newspaper’s English-language service, also took the same step.

Experts said the article in question had an unprecedented number of fabrications.

Okayama University and the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center (NCVC) announced March 24 that a 2019 research paper written by Atsunori Kamiya contained 113 fabrications.

The two institutions called for the research paper to be retracted and university officials said disciplinary measures were being considered against Kamiya.

At a March 24 news conference, Yasutomo Nasu, a university vice president and executive director for research, said, “This is clearly an unprecedented case.”

The two organizations concluded that Kamiya’s fabrications were so flagrant that he lacked a sense of ethics as a scientist.

Kamiya has admitted to negligence, but denied any wrongdoing, according to university sources.

The research paper in question was published in the British journal Nature Neuroscience in July 2019.

One conclusion of the paper was that cancer cells of breast cancer patients who suffered a recurrence had a higher concentration of sympathetic nerves. The paper added that the findings might lead to the development of a new treatment targeting the sympathetic nerves.

The research, which was based on mice with transplanted breast cancer cells, found that stimulating the sympathetic nerves led to an expansion of cancer cells and an increase of metastases.

In 2020, the research findings were called into question. Okayama University and the NCVC mounted an immediate investigation because Kamiya worked for the NCVC when the experiments were conducted.

The purchase record for the mice used in the experiment found an insufficient number compared with the figure used in the research data, triggering suspicions the experiment as reported in the research paper was fictitious and not founded in fact.

The research paper also displayed images purportedly taken 60 days apart, but data remaining in the analytical equipment found that the photos were taken the same day.

Kamiya did not submit the experiment data that was the basis for the research paper, claiming the hard disk containing the information was damaged during a strong earthquake that struck northern Osaka Prefecture in 2018. The NCVC is located in Osaka Prefecture.

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The original Asahi Shimbun article published in the morning edition of the July 7, 2019, issue was translated by AJW under the headline “Cell study: Stress increases spread, recurrence of breast cancer.” 

Because of Okayama University’s announcement, both the AJW translation and original Japanese article have been deleted.

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