How cancer cells protect themselves from low levels of oxygen
Saturday, December 19, 2009 - 23:21
in Health & Medicine
Not all regions of a tumor are equal in terms of their oxygen levels. One clinically important implication of this is that tumors with large areas with low levels of oxygen (areas known as hypoxic regions) are associated with poor prognosis and treatment response. Researchers have determined that a cellular response pathway known as the unfolded protein response pathway helps protect human tumor cells from hypoxia and anticancer irradiation treatment.