Abstract
BackgroundChemo-radiotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, is the most frequent treatment for patients with esophageal cancer. In the process of radiotherapy, the radiosensitive cancer will become a radio-resistant one.MethodsIn order to detect the chemotherapeutic drug sensitivity in radio-resistant cancer cells and improve the therapy efficiency, we firstly established a radio-resistant esophageal cancer cell model (referred to as EC109/R) from the human esophageal squamous cell carcinoma cell line EC109 through fractionated irradiation using X-rays. The radio-sensitivity of EC109/R cells was measured by clonogenic assay. To detect the drug sensitivity for EC109/R compared to its parent cells, we employed MTT method to screen the effectiveness of five different drugs commonly used in clinical therapy. The ratio of apoptosis was examined by flow cytometry.ResultsEC109/R cells were more sensitive to 5-fluorouracil, doxorubicin, paclitaxel and etoposide, but tolerant to cisplatin compared to its original cells.ConclusionOur study implies that fractionated irradiation induced radio-resistant esophageal cancer cell is more sensitive to certain kind of chemotherapeutic drugs. It provides evidence for choosing the sequence of radiotherapy and chemotherapy in esophageal cancer.
Highlights
Chemo-radiotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, is the most frequent treatment for patients with esophageal cancer
Establishment of cell subline resistant to irradiation The EC109 cells were treated repetitively with 10 Gy of Xray irradiation, with about 20 days recovery allowed between each fraction until the total concentration reached 80 Gy
The clonogenic assay was used to analyze their radiosensitivity after 0–12 Gy irradiation
Summary
Chemo-radiotherapy, a combination of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, is the most frequent treatment for patients with esophageal cancer. Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has commanded increased attention in the past three decades because of changing epidemiologic patterns and expanded treatment options [1,2,3,4]. Patients undergoing surgery alone had a median survival ranging from 13 to 19 months and a 5-year survival rate of 15% to 24%. The introduction of adjuvant chemo- and radiotherapy has improved the prognosis of patients with ESCCs, those with high potential for lymph node metastasis [6,7]. Radiotherapy in particular has played a key role in the control of tumor growth in esophageal cancer (page number not for citation purposes)
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