title: Cancer stem cells: Radioresistance, prediction of radiotherapy outcome and specific targets for combined treatments.
abstract: Inactivation of cancer stem cells (CSCs) is of utmost importance for tumor cure after radiotherapy. An increasing body of evidence complies with a higher radioresistance of CSCs compared to the mass of tumor cells, supporting the use of CSC related biomarkers for prediction of radiotherapy outcome. Treatment individualization strategies for patient groups with vastly different risk of recurrence will most likely require application of more than one biomarker. Specifically, inclusion of established biomarkers like tumor size for primary radio(chemo)therapy or human papilloma virus (HPV) infection status in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma seems to be of very high relevance. The high heterogeneity of CSC subclones along with changes of the functional behavior of individual tumors under treatment underlines the importance of the selection of the optimal timepoint(s) of biomarker evaluation, but also provides a potential therapeutic target for combined treatment approaches with irradiation.
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Dresden, Germany; Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; OncoRay, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Germany. Electronic address: mechthild.krause@uniklinikum-dresden.de.
authors.forename: Mechthild
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krause
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Dresden, Germany; OncoRay, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dubrovska
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Dresden, Germany; Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; OncoRay, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Annett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Linge
authors.affiliation: German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Dresden, Germany; Dept. of Radiation Oncology, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; OncoRay, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, Germany; Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany; German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Baumann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D006258:Head and Neck Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000528:radiation effects*; D030361:Papillomavirus Infections / Q000150:complications / Q000532:radiotherapy; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Biomarker; Cancer stem cells; Prediction; Prognosis; Radiotherapy