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Apoptosis and Cancer Chemotherapy pp 1–19Cite as

Does Apoptosis Contribute to Tumor Cell Sensitivity to Anticancer Agents?

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Part of the book series: Cancer Drug Discovery and Development ((CDD&D))

Abstract

The widely held view that tumor cells treated with anticancer agents die from apoptosis, and that cells resistant to apoptosis are resistant to cancer treatment, is incorrect. Two principal factors have given rise to this dogma. First, cell killing has often been assessed in short-term assays that are influenced more by the rate, than the overall level, of cell death. Second, conclusions have been extrapolated from normal cells transformed with dominant oncogenes to tumor cells, without taking into account that tumor cells have invariably undergone selection to an apoptotically resistant phenotype. If clonogenic survival is used to assess cell killing, and real tumor cells are used, then apoptosis, and the genes controlling it, such as p53 and bel-2, play little or no role in the sensitivity of tumor cells of nonhematological origin to anticancer drugs and radiation.

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Authors
  1. J. Martin Brown PhD
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  2. Bradly G. Wouters PhD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cancer Research Campaign, Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology Group, School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, UK

    John A. Hickman  & Caroline Dive  & 

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Brown, J.M., Wouters, B.G. (1999). Does Apoptosis Contribute to Tumor Cell Sensitivity to Anticancer Agents?. In: Hickman, J.A., Dive, C. (eds) Apoptosis and Cancer Chemotherapy. Cancer Drug Discovery and Development. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-720-8_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-720-8_1

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61737-165-3

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