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World J Clin Oncol. Dec 20, 2018; 9(8): 180-187
Published online Dec 20, 2018. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v9.i8.180
Role of senescence induction in cancer treatment
Shenghui Qin, Bradley A Schulte, Gavin Y Wang
Shenghui Qin, Bradley A Schulte, Gavin Y Wang, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, United States
Gavin Y Wang, Developmental Cancer Therapeutics Program of Hollings Cancer Center, Charleston, SC 29425, United States
Author contributions: Qin S and Wang GY conceived the study and reviewed the literature; Qin S, Schulte BA and Wang GY wrote the manuscript and approved the final version of the article.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflict of interest to declare.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author to: Gavin Y Wang, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, 171 Ashley Avenue, MSC908, Charleston, SC 29425, United States. wangy@musc.edu
Telephone: +1-843-7929983 Fax: +1-843-7920368
Received: August 3, 2018
Peer-review started: August 4, 2018
First decision: September 3, 2018
Revised: September 20, 2018
Accepted: November 27, 2018
Article in press: November 27, 2018
Published online: December 20, 2018
Core Tip

Core tip: Both in vitro and in vivo studies have revealed that senescence induction in human cancer cells is a prominent response to chemotherapy and irradiation. A senescent phenotype has been detected in clinical tumor samples of breast cancer patients following preoperative neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Immunotherapy-induced senescence of cancer cells contributes to tumor regression in vivo. The induction of cancer cell senescence appears to be a major mechanism of action of cyclin-dependent kinases 4/6 small molecule inhibitor-based targeted therapy. Collectively, these preclinical and clinical observations have demonstrated an important role for senescence induction in cancer treatment.