Title

Current Opinions on Chemoresistance: An Overview

Authors

Saba Hasan^1*, Ruba Taha¹, Halima El Omri¹

Affiliation

¹Medical Oncology Department, National Center for Cancer Care and Research, Hamad Medical Corporation, Doha, Qatar.

Email

saba0786@gmail.com;

Article Type

Review

Date

Received February 2, 2018; Revised February 24, 2018; Accepted February 24, 2018; Published February 28, 2018

Sub population of cancer cells, referred to as Cancer stem cells (CSCs) or tumor initiating cells, have enhanced metastatic potential that drives tumor progression. CSCs have been found to hold intrinsic resistance to present chemotherapeutic strategies. This resistance is attributed to DNA reparability, slower cell cycle and high levels of detoxifying enzymes. Hence, CSCs pose an obstacle against chemotherapy. The increasing prevalence of drug resistant cancers necessitates further research and treatment development. The current review presents the essential mechanisms that impart chemoresistance in CSCs as well as the epigenetic modifications that can induce drug resistance and considers how such epigenetic factors may contribute to the development of cancer progenitor cells, which are not killed by conventional cancer therapies.

Keywords

Chemoresistance, CSCs, drug efflux, biomarkers, tumor cells

Citation

Hasan et al. Bioinformation 14(2): 80-85 (2018)

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.