Hypoxia and oxidative stress in breast cancer: Tumour hypoxia – therapeutic considerations
-
* Corresponding author: Ian J Stratford ian.stratford@man.ac.uk
Department of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Breast Cancer Res 2001, 3:328-331 doi:10.1186/bcr316
Published: 7 August 2001Abstract
Conclusive research has shown that regions of acute/chronic hypoxia, which exist within the majority of solid tumours, have a profound influence on the therapeutic outcome of cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy and are a strong prognostic factor of disease progression and survival. A strong argument therefore exists for assessing the hypoxic fraction of tumours, prior to patient treatment, and to tailor this treatment accordingly. Tumour hypoxia also provides a powerful physiological stimulus that can be exploited as a tumour-specific condition, allowing for the rationale design of hypoxia-activated anticancer drugs or novel hypoxia-regulated gene therapy strategies.