Radiotherapy Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Radiotherapy, including details on cancer treatment, side effects.

Repopulation of cancer cells during therapy: an important cause of treatment failure.

Kim JJ, Tannock IF

Department of Radiation Oncology, Princess Margaret Hospital and University of Toronto, 610 University Avenue, Toronto, ON M5G 2M9, Canada.

Radiotherapy and chemotherapy are given in multiple doses, which are spaced out to allow the recovery of normal tissues between treatments. However, surviving cancer cells also proliferate during the intervals between treatments and this process of repopulation is an important cause of treatment failure. Strategies developed to overcome repopulation have improved clinical outcomes, and now new strategies to inhibit repopulation are emerging in parallel with advances in the understanding of underlying biological mechanisms.

Published 2 August 2005 in Nat Rev Cancer, 5(7): 516-25.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Radiotherapy Research Today. All Rights Reserved.