A NEW STUDY ON THE TUMORIGENICITY OF DRUG INDUCED SENESCENCE
Researchers from Erdal Lab at IBG recently published their results in the journal Molecular Oncology.
Researchers from Erdal Lab at IBG recently published their results in the journal Molecular Oncology (DOI: 10.1002/1878-0261.12916), showing increased stemness and tumorigenicity in the non-stem cell population of hepatocellular tumour cells upon treatment with a senescence-inducing agent.
It has long been suggested that the induction of senescence – a dormant state of a cell- can be a potential strategy for cancer treatment. Nevertheless; recent research suggested that a group of therapy-induced dormant cells may gain stemness properties and prolonged survival, which may cause disease recurrence.
Prof. Dr. Esra Erdal and her group members investigated senescence associated stemness in different populations of a liver cancer cell line. They observed that when senescence is induced, some cells in the non-stem cell population gain increased stemness and tumour forming capacity.
Their observations support the hypothesis that therapy-induced senescence may represent a double-edged sword for tumour control. It is an important report indicating the significance of carefully assessing both the beneficial and detrimental effects of senescence-inducing drugs, while selecting the suitable therapy option for cancer patients.