Radiation is a brutal and in many cases necessary part of cancer therapy. More 50% of cancer patients receive radiotherapy as part of their treatment, and many experience concurrent negative side effects. In addition, a smaller fraction of patients develop severe late radiation toxicity, months or years after their treatment in normal tissues near the tumor site. For example, in prostate cancer--a tumor in the prostate gland that lies between the bladder and the rectum--late radiation toxicity affects rectal, bladder, and sexual function in 510% of patients. A new study by Micheline Giphart-Gassler (Leiden University Medical Center) and colleagues published in the international open-access journal PLoS Medicine now suggests that in the future scientists might be able to tell who is at higher risk for such late toxicity and adjust treatments accordingly.
Scientists don't know why some patients develop late radiation toxicity, but one theory is that some patients have a genetic predisposition. Giphart-Gassler and colleagues tested this by comparing radiation-induced changes in the gene expression profiles in blood cells from 21 patients who had late radiation toxicity after radiotherapy with the changes seen in cells from patients who did not developed such complications. Irradiation with X-rays induced the expression of numerous genes in the cells, including many known radiation-responsive genes. From those, the researchers derived a gene expression profile (or molecular signature) that was associated with late radiation toxicity. A signature based on the radiation response of 50 individual genes correctly classified 63% of the patient population in terms of whether they had developed late radiation toxicity. A signature based on the radiation response of gene sets containing genes linked by function or cellular localization correctly classified 86% of the patient population.
While these results are not robust enough to apply them in a clinical
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Contact: Andrew Hyde
press@plos.org
44-122-346-3330
Public Library of Science
30-Oct-2006