Open Access

REVIEW

Molecular biomarkers: multiple roles in radiotherapy

by YUE CHEN, ZHITING TANG, MIAO YU, RUI ZHANG, XINXIN DONG, LIANQUN CAO

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.

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