Effects of radiation on the metastatic process.
Radiotherapy remains one of the corner stones in the treatment of various malignancies and often leads to an improvement in overall survival. Nonetheless, pre-clinical evidence indicates that radiation can entail pro-metastatic effects via multiple pathways. Via direct actions on cancer cells and indirect actions on the tumor microenvironment, radiation has the potential to enhance epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition, invasion, migration, angiogenesis and metastasis. However, the data remains ambiguous and clinical observations that unequivocally prove these findings are lacking. In this review we discuss the pre-clinical and clinical data on the local and systemic effect of irradiation on the metastatic process with an emphasis on the molecular pathways involved.
['Sundahl|Nora|N|0000-0001-8530-4932', 'Duprez|Fréderic|F|', 'Ost|Piet|P|', 'De Neve|Wilfried|W|', 'Mareel|Marc|M|']
D000818:Animals D002465:Cell Movement D006801:Humans D009369:Neoplasms D009385:Neoplastic Processes D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic D011878:Radiotherapy
Radiation Radiotherapy Cancer Invasion Metastasis