Published September 29, 2014 | Version v1
Journal article

STAT3: A Novel Molecular Mediator of Resistance to Chemoradiotherapy

  • 1. Department of General, Visceral and Pediatric Surgery, University Medicine Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, Göttingen 37075 (Germany)
  • 2. Genetics Branch, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892 (United States)
  • 3. Department of Radiotherapy and Radiooncology, University Medicine Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Str. 40, Göttingen 37075 (Germany)
  • 4. Department of Cellular and Molecular Immunology, University Medicine Göttingen, Humboldtallee 34, Göttingen 37073 (Germany)

Description

Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) represents a standard treatment for many human cancers, frequently combined with radical surgical resection. However, a considerable percentage of primary cancers are at least partially resistant to CRT, which represents a substantial clinical problem, because it exposes cancer patients to the potential side effects of both irradiation and chemotherapy. It is therefore exceedingly important to determine the molecular characteristics underlying CRT-resistance and to identify novel molecular targets that can be manipulated to re-sensitize resistant tumors to CRT. In this review, we highlight much of the recent evidence suggesting that the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) plays a prominent role in mediating CRT-resistance, and we outline why inhibition of STAT3 holds great promise for future multimodal treatment concepts in oncology

Availability note (English)

Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers6041986; Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4276953

Additional details

Publishing Information

Journal Title
Cancers (Basel)
Journal Volume
6
Journal Issue
4
Journal Page Range
p. 1986-2011
ISSN
2072-6694

INIS

Country of Publication
Switzerland
Country of Input or Organization
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
INIS RN
47006783
Subject category
S62: RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE;
Descriptors DEI
COMBINED THERAPY; NEOPLASMS; RADIOTHERAPY; SIDE EFFECTS
Descriptors DEC
DISEASES; MEDICINE; NUCLEAR MEDICINE; RADIOLOGY; THERAPY

Optional Information

Copyright
Copyright (c) 2014 by the authors
Notes
PMCID: PMC4276953; PMID: 25268165; PUBLISHER-ID: cancers-06-01986; OAI: oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:4276953; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.; This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).