Abstract
Radiotherapy is a very effective treatment for achieving local tumor control in breast cancer. However, intrinsic tumor cell radioresistance is a significant clinical problem that limits the results of the treatment. Chemotherapeutics that could specifically sensitize tumors to radiation would greatly increase the ability to deliver higher doses while limiting radiation damage to surrounding normal tissue, but efforts to develop clinically useful tumor radiosensitizers have had limited success.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Hall EJ. Radiobiology for the radiologist. 5th ed. New York: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2000.
Khanna KK, Jackson SP. DNA double-strand breaks: signaling, repair and the cancer connection. Nat Genet. 2001;27:247–54.
Helleday T, Lo J, van Gent DC, et al. DNA double-strand break repair: from mechanistic understanding to cancer treatment. DNA Repair (Amst). 2007;6:923–35.
van Gent DC, van der Burg M. Non-homologous end-joining, a sticky affair. Oncogene. 2007;26:7731–40.
Jorgensen TJ. Enhancing radiosensitivity. Cancer Biol Ther. 2000;8(8):665–70.
Mahaney BL, Meek K, Lees-Miller SP. Repair of ionizing radiation-induced DNA doublestrand breaks by non-homologous end-joining. Biochem J. 2009;417:639–50.
Hakem R. DNA-damage repair; the good, the bad and the ugly. EMBO J. 2008;27:589–605.
Liang K, Jin W, Knuefermann C, Schmidt M, et al. Targeting the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase/Akt pathway for enhancing breast cancer cells to radiotherapy. Mol Cancer Ther. 2003;2(4):353–60.
Wollman R, Yahalom J, Maxy R, et al. Effect of epidermal growth factor on the growth and radiation sensitivity of human breast cancer cells in vitro. Int J Radiat Oncol. 1994;30:91–8.
Zhou H, Kim YS, Peletier A, et al. Effects of the EGFR/HER2 kinase inhibitor GW572016 on EGFR- and HER2-overexpressing breast cancer cell line proliferation, radiosensitization, and resistance. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2004;58:344–52.
Sambade MJ, Kimple RJ, Camp JT, et al. Lapatinib in combination with radiation diminishes tumor regrowth in HER2+ and basal-like/EGFR+ breast tumor xenografts. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010;77(2):575–81.
Turner BC, Haffty BG, Narayanan L, et al. Insulin-like growth factor-I receptor overexpression mediates cellular radioresistance and local breast cancer recurrence after lumpectomy and radiation. Cancer Res. 1997;57(15):3079–83.
Bartucci M, Morelli C, Mauro L, et al. Differential insulin-like growth factor I receptor signaling and function in estrogen receptor (ER)-positive MCF-7 and ER-negative MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Cancer Res. 2001;61:6747–54.
Iwamoto KS, Barber CL. Radiation-induced posttranscriptional control of M6P/IGF2r expression in breast cancer cell lines. Mol Carcinog. 2007;46(7):497–502.
Manders P, Sweep FC, Tjan-Heijnen VC, et al. Vascular endothelial growth factor independently predicts the efficacy of postoperative radiotherapy in nodenegative breast cancer patients. Clin Cancer Res. 2003;9:6363–70.
Linderholm B, Tavelin B, Grankvist K, et al. Does vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) predict local relapse and survival in radiotherapy-treated node-negative breast cancer? Br J Cancer. 1999;81:727–32.
Labidi SI, Bachelot T, Ray-Coquard I, et al. Bevacizumab and paclitaxel for breast cancer patients with central nervous system metastases: a case series. Clin Breast Cancer. 2009;9(2):118–21.
Abbott DW, Thompson ME, Robinson-Benion C, et al. BRCA1 expression restores radiation resistance in BRCA1-defective cancer cells through enhancement of transcription-coupled DNA repair. J Biol Chem. 1999;274:18808–12.
Baeyens A, Thierens H, Claes K, et al. Chromosomal radiosensitivity in BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutation carriers. Int J Radiat Biol. 2004;80(10):745–56.
Nieuwenhuis B, Van Assen-Bolt AJ, Van Waarde-Verhagen MA, et al. BRCA1 and BRCA2 heterozygosity and repair of X-ray-induced DNA damage. Int J Radiat Biol. 2002;78(4):285–95.
Coleman CN. Molecular biology in radiation oncology. Radiation oncology perspective of BRCA1 and BRCA2. Acta Oncol. 1999;38 Suppl 13:55–9.
Ernestos B, Nikolaos P, Koulis G, et al. Increased chromosomal radiosensitivity in women carrying BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations assessed with the G2 assay. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2010;76(4):1199–205.
Marchetti P, Cannita K, Ricevuto E, et al. Prognostic value of p53 molecular status in high-risk primary breast cancer. Ann Oncol. 2003;14(5):704–8.
Mayer C, Popanda O, Greve B, et al. A radiation-induced gene expression signature as a tool to predict acute radiotherapy induced adverse side effects. Cancer Lett. 2011;302(1):20–8.
Slijepcevic P. Is there a link between telomere maintenance and radiosensitivity? Radiat Res. 2004;161(1):82–6.
Zhong YH, Liao ZK, Zhou FX, et al. Telomere length inversely correlates with radiosensitivity in human carcinoma cells with the same tissue background. Biochem Biophys Res Commun. 2008;367(1):84–9.
Iwasaki T, Robertson N, Tsigani T, et al. Lymphocyte telomere length correlates with in vitro radiosensitivity in breast cancer cases but is not predictive of acute normal tissue reactions to radiotherapy. Int J Radiat Biol. 2008;84(4):277–84.
Barwell J, Pangon L, Georgiou A, et al. Is telomere length in peripheral blood lymphocytes correlated with cancer susceptibility or radiosensitivity? Br J Cancer. 2007;97(12):1696–700.
Al-Ejeh F, Smart CE, Morrison BJ, et al. Breast cancer stem cells: treatment resistance and therapeutic opportunities. Carcinogenesis. 2011;32(5):650–8.
Lindeman GJ, Visvader JE. Insights into the cell of origin in breast cancer and breast cancer stem cells. Asia Pac J Clin Oncol. 2010;6:89–97.
Phillips TM, Mc Bride WH, Pajonk F. The response of CD24(_/low)/CD44+ breast cancer-initiating cells to radiation. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2006;98:1777–85.
Woodward WA, Chen MS, Behbod F, et al. WNT/beta-catenin mediates radiation resistance of mouse mammary progenitor cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2007;104:618–23.
Diehn M, Cho RW, Lobo NA, et al. Association of reactive oxygen species levels and radioresistance in cancer stem cells. Nature. 2009;458:780–3.
Han JS, Crowe DL. Tumor initiating cancer stem cells from human breast cancer cell lines. Int J Oncol. 2009;34:1449–53.
Singh A, Settleman J. EMT, cancer stem cells and drug resistance: an emerging axis of evil in the war on cancer. Oncogene. 2010;29:4741–51.
Karimi-Busheri F, Rasouli NA, Mackey JY, et al. Senescence evasion by MCF-7 human breast tumor-initiating cells. Breast Cancer Res. 2010;12:R31.
Harper LJ, Costena D, Gammon L, et al. Normal and malignant epithelial cells with stemlike properties have an extended G2 cell cycle phase that is associated with apoptotic resistance. BMC Cancer. 2010;10(166):2010.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kamer, S., Atasoy, B.M. (2013). Mechanisms of Resistance to Radiation. In: Haydaroglu, A., Ozyigit, G. (eds) Principles and Practice of Modern Radiotherapy Techniques in Breast Cancer. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5116-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5116-7_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5115-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5116-7
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)