Synergy of taxol combined with irradiation on apoptosis induction in human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line

Objective: To study the synergistic effect of taxol and irradiation on programmed cell death induction in the human nasopharyngeal carcinoma cell line (CNE) in vivo. Methods: Cell viability was evaluated by clonogenic assay. Cell cycle perturbation was assessed by flow cytometric analysis and apoptosis was determined with TUNEL. Results: The intensity of cytotoxicity depended on the taxol dose used to CNE cells during the first 24 hrs. AG2 + M block was present with exposure to the drug of 100 nmol/L. When CNE cells were irradiated after 24 hrs of taxol exposure, synergistic effect was demonstrated with a taxol SER of 1.23. The same level apoptosis was induced by 10 μmol/L taxol for 24 hrs or 2 Gy X-ray radiation in CNE cells. By both, the increase of induced apoptotic cells was over their additive results. Conclusion: Taxol combined with radiation is able to enhance the radiosensitivity in the CNE cell line