Radiation biology and oncology in the genomic era.

Radiation biology and oncology in the genomic era. Br J Radiol. 2018 Jun 11;:20170949 Authors: Kerns S, Chuang KH, Hall W, Werner Z, Chen Y, Ostrer H, West C, Rosenstein B Abstract Radiobiology research is building the foundation for applying genomics in precision radiation oncology. Advances in high-throughput approaches will underpin increased understanding of radiosensitivity and the development of future predictive assays for clinical application. There is an established contribution of genetics as a risk factor for radiotherapy side-effects. An individual's radiosensitivity is an inherited polygenic trait with an architecture that includes rare mutations in a few genes that confer large effects and common variants in many genes with small effects. Current thinking is that some will be tissue specific and future tests will be tailored to the normal tissues at risk. The relationship between normal and tumor cell radiosensitivity is poorly understood. Data are emerging suggesting interplay between germline genetic variation and epigenetic modification with growing evidence that changes in DNA methylation regulate the radiosensitivity of cancer cells and histone acetyltransferase inhibitors have radiosensitizing effects. Changes in histone methylation can also impair DNA damage response signaling and alter radiosensitivity. An important effort to advance radiobiology in the genomic era was establishment of the Radiogenomics Consorti...
Source: The British Journal of Radiology - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Br J Radiol Source Type: research