Review: Mechanisms and perspective treatment of radioresistance in non-small cell lung cancer

Ting Zhou; Li-Ying Zhang; Jian-Zheng He; Zhi-Ming Miao; Yang-Yang Li; Yi-Ming Zhang; Zhi-Wei Liu; Shang-Zu Zhang; Yan Chen; Gu-Cheng Zhou; Yong-Qi Liu

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1133899

Review: Mechanisms and perspective treatment of radioresistance in non-small cell lung cancer

Front Immunol. 2023 Feb 14:14:1133899. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1133899. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Ting Zhou^{1

2}, Li-Ying Zhang^{1

3}, Jian-Zheng He^{1

3}, Zhi-Ming Miao¹, Yang-Yang Li¹, Yi-Ming Zhang¹, Zhi-Wei Liu¹, Shang-Zu Zhang¹, Yan Chen¹, Gu-Cheng Zhou¹, Yong-Qi Liu^{1

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Provincial-Level Key Laboratory for Molecular Medicine of Major Diseases and The Prevention and Treatment with Traditional Chinese Medicine Research in Gansu Colleges and University, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China.
² Experimental & Training Teaching Centers, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China.
³ College of Basic Medicine, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Dunhuang Medicine and Transformation at Provincial and Ministerial Level, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China.

Abstract

Radiotherapy is the major treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The radioresistance and toxicity are the main obstacles that leading to therapeutic failure and poor prognosis. Oncogenic mutation, cancer stem cells (CSCs), tumor hypoxia, DNA damage repair, epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), and tumor microenvironment (TME) may dominate the occurrence of radioresistance at different stages of radiotherapy. Chemotherapy drugs, targeted drugs, and immune checkpoint inhibitors are combined with radiotherapy to treat NSCLC to improve the efficacy. This article reviews the potential mechanism of radioresistance in NSCLC, and discusses the current drug research to overcome radioresistance and the advantages of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in improving the efficacy and reducing the toxicity of radiotherapy.

Keywords: Traditional Chinese Medicine; non-small cell lung cancer; radioresistance mechanisms; radiotherapy; toxicity.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Carcinoma, Non-Small-Cell Lung* / radiotherapy
DNA Repair
Drug Delivery Systems
Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
Humans
Lung Neoplasms* / radiotherapy
Tumor Microenvironment

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.81973595), The basic research Innovation Group in Gansu (No.20JR10RA332), Provincial University industry support project in Gansu (No.2020C-15), and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.82260882).