![Sample our Bioscience journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5925/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Bioscience.jpg"})
Abstract
Radiation therapy plays an important role in the management of malignant tumors, however, the problem of radiation resistance resulting in tumor recurrences after treatment is still unsolved. The emergence of novel biomarkers to predict cancer cell insensitivity to ionizing radiation could help to improve therapy results in cancer patients receiving radiation therapy. The proteomic approach could be effectively used to identify proteins associated with cancer radiation resistance. It is generally believed that radiation resistance could be associated with cancer stem cell persistence within the tumor. Therefore, determination of the molecular characteristics of cancer stem cells could provide additional possibilities to discover novel biomarkers to predict radiation resistance in cancer patients. This review addresses proteome-based findings that could be used for further biomarker identification and preclinical and clinical validation.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Key issues
Malignant tumors can possess different degrees of aggressiveness, resulting in different sensitivities to ionizing radiation.
Specific protein profiling can be related to the reduced sensitivity of cancer cells to ionizing radiation.
There is a similarity between the radiation resistance signature and cancer stem cell protein profiling.
Heat shock proteins, Ref1/Ape1, NME1 and Rac1 proteins could be considered as putative biomarkers of radiation resistance in malignant tumors.
Predicted radiation resistance in cancer patients could provide the basis for reconsidering the treatment schedule by adding additional options such as chemotherapy or targeted therapeutics.