Open Access
REVIEW
Molecular biomarkers: multiple roles in radiotherapy
YUE CHEN1, ZHITING TANG2, MIAO YU1, RUI ZHANG1,*, XINXIN DONG1, LIANQUN CAO1
1 Department of Colorectal Surgery, Cancer Hospital of China Medical University, Liaoning Cancer Hospital & Institute, Shenyang, 110042, China
2 Department of Radiation Oncology of Thoracic Cancer, Cancer Hospital of China Medical University, Liaoning Cancer Hospital & Institute, Shenyang, 110042, China
* Address correspondence to: Rui Zhang,
BIOCELL 2020, 44(4), 513-524. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2020.09422
Received 12 December 2019; Accepted 28 April 2020; Issue published 24 December 2020
Abstract
Preoperative chemoradiation therapy (CRT) is becoming the standard treatment for patients with locally
advanced rectal cancer. However, individual differences in response to treatment range from a complete response to
complete resistance. Predicting the tumor response to radiotherapy may improve the efficacy of radiotherapy. This
review mainly summarizes recent studies about the molecular biomarkers that can predict the response to
radiotherapy in rectal cancer. These studies have indicated that the molecular markers involved in the response to
radiotherapy mainly include genes related to radiosensitivity, cancer stem cell-related markers, non-coding RNAs
(ncRNAs), single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and gene methylation, and other factors including
carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level, anemia, lymphocytes, and signaling pathways. Many of these identified
markers are mainly associated with DNA repair, apoptosis, and cell cycle, but some involve unknown cell
mechanisms. We speculate that predictors of radiotherapy response may involve combinations of multiple molecular
biomarkers that may be useful for the development of individualized therapy for rectal cancer patients.
Keywords
Cite This Article
APA Style
CHEN, Y., TANG, Z., YU, M., ZHANG, R., DONG, X. et al. (2020). Molecular biomarkers: multiple roles in radiotherapy. BIOCELL, 44(4), 513-524. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2020.09422
Vancouver Style
CHEN Y, TANG Z, YU M, ZHANG R, DONG X, CAO L. Molecular biomarkers: multiple roles in radiotherapy. BIOCELL . 2020;44(4):513-524 https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2020.09422
IEEE Style
Y. CHEN, Z. TANG, M. YU, R. ZHANG, X. DONG, and L. CAO "Molecular biomarkers: multiple roles in radiotherapy," BIOCELL , vol. 44, no. 4, pp. 513-524. 2020. https://doi.org/10.32604/biocell.2020.09422
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