BACKGROUND Activation of the transcription factor NF-kappaB is part of the immediate early response of tissues to ionizing irradiation. This pathway has been shown to protect cells from tumor necrosis factor-alpha, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy-induced apoptosis (programmed cell death). However, because the role of NF-kappaB as a modifier of the intrinsic radiosensitivity of cancer cells ...

Background: Boron and gadolinium are among the nuclides that hold a unique property of being a neutron capture therapy agent. Neutron beams have often a considerable portion of gamma rays with fast neutrons. Gamma rays, as beam contaminants, can cause considerable damage to normal tissues even if such tissues do contain high boron concentrations. Materials and Methods: The modification of radio...

Significant inter-individual variation in G(2) chromosomal radiosensitivity, measured as radiation-induced chromatid-type aberrations in the subsequent metaphase, has been reported in peripheral blood lymphocytes of both healthy individuals and a range of cancer patients. One possible explanation for this variation is that it is driven, at least in part, by the efficiency of G(2)-M checkpoint c...

Rad51 is an essential component of the homologous DNA repair pathway and has been implicated as a determinant of cellular radiosensitivity. Gleevec is a relatively specific inhibitor of c-Abl, a tyrosine kinase that can play a role in the regulation Rad51. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of Gleevec on Rad51 levels and the radiosensitivity of two human glioma cell lines and a ...

PURPOSE Current strategies for tumor cell radiosensitization focus on a target-based approach. However, the radioresponse of a tumor cell is influenced by a wide variety of signaling molecules existing in a number of different survival pathways. Therefore, in an attempt to increase the probability and/or degree of radiosensitization, we have begun to investigate a multitarget approach using the...

Patients receiving identical radiation treatments experience different effects, from undetectable to severe, on normal tissues. A crucial factor of radiotherapy related side effects is individual radiosensitivity. It is difficult to spare surrounding normal tissues delivering radiation to cancer cells during radiotherapy. Therefore, it may be useful to develop a simple routine cytogenetic assay...

Akt has been implicated as a molecular determinant of cellular radiosensitivity. Because it is often constitutively activated or overexpressed in malignant gliomas, it has been suggested as a target for brain tumor radiosensitization. To evaluate the role of Akt in glioma radioresponse, we have determined the effects of perifosine, a clinically relevant alkylphospholipid that inhibits Akt activ...

Vorinostat (suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, is currently undergoing clinical evaluation as therapy for cancer. We investigated the effects of vorinostat on tumor cell radiosensitivity in a breast cancer brain metastasis model using MDA-MB-231-BR cells. In vitro radiosensitivity was evaluated using clonogenic assay. Cell cycle distribution and apoptosis was mea...

BACKGROUND This study aimed to determine the role of miR-129-5p in irradiation-induced autophagy in breast cancer cells and to investigate its downstream regulation in autophagy-related radiosensitivity. MATERIAL AND METHODS Relative miR-129-5p expression in breast cancer cell lines MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, BT474, and BT549, and in 1 non-tumorigenic breast epithelial cell line, MCF-10A, was compared....

The ability to identify tumors that are susceptible to a given molecularly targeted radiosensitizer would be of clinical benefit. Towards this end, we have investigated the effects of a representative Hsp90 inhibitor, 17-(dimethylaminoethylamino)-17-demethoxygeldanamycin (17DMAG), on the radiosensitivity of a panel of human tumor cell lines. 17DMAG was previously shown to enhance the radiosensi...