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Background & Aims The role of radiation therapy in the treatment of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is controversial. Randomized controlled trials investigating the efficacy of radiation therapy in patients with locally advanced unresectable PDA...

PURPOSE: Radiotherapy remains a major treatment method for malignant tumors. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is the standard modality for assessing glioma treatment response in the clinic. Compared to MRI, ultrasound imaging is low-cost and portable and can be used...

Efficient and error-free DNA repair is critical for safeguarding genome integrity, yet it is also linked to radio- and chemoresistance of malignant tumors. miR-34a, a potent tumor suppressor, influences a large set of p53-regulated genes and contributes to p53-mediated apoptosis. However, the effects of miR-34a on the processes of DNA damage and repair are not entirely understood. We explored tet-inducible miR-34a-expressing human p53 wild-type and R273H p53 mutant GBM cell lines, and found that miR-34a influences the broad spectrum of 53BP1-mediated DNA damage response. It escalates both post-irradiation and endogenous DNA damage, abrogates radiation-induced G 2/M arrest and drastically increases the number of irradiated cells undergoing mitotic catastrophe. Furthermore, miR-34a downregulates 53BP1 and inhibits its recruitment to the sites of DNA double-strand breaks. We conclude that whereas miR-34a counteracts DNA repair, it also contributes to the p53-independent elimination of distressed cells, thus preventing the rise of genomic instability in tumor cell populations. These properties of miR-34a can potentially be exploited for DNA damage-effecting therapies of malignancies.

Kofman AV, Kim J, Park SY, Dupart E, Letson C, Bao Y, Ding K, Chen Q, Schiff D, Larner J, Abounader R.

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Glioblastoma is the most common form of primary brain tumor in adults and is essentially incurable. Despite aggressive treatment regimens centered on radiotherapy, tumor recurrence is inevitable and is thought to be driven by glioblastoma stem-like cells (GSC) that are highly radioresistant. DNA damage response pathways are key determinants of radiosensitivity but the extent to which these overlapping and parallel signaling components contribute to GSC radioresistance is unclear. Using a panel of primary patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines, we confirmed by clonogenic survival assays that GSCs were significantly more radioresistant than paired tumor bulk populations. DNA damage response targets ATM, ATR, CHK1, and PARP1 were upregulated in GSCs, and CHK1 was preferentially activated following irradiation. Consequently, GSCs exhibit rapid G2-M cell-cycle checkpoint activation and enhanced DNA repair. Inhibition of CHK1 or ATR successfully abrogated G2-M checkpoint function, leading to increased mitotic catastrophe and a modest increase in radiation sensitivity. Inhibition of ATM had dual effects on cell-cycle checkpoint regulation and DNA repair that were associated with greater radiosensitizing effects on GSCs than inhibition of CHK1, ATR, or PARP alone. Combined inhibition of PARP and ATR resulted in a profound radiosensitization of GSCs, which was of greater magnitude than in bulk populations and also exceeded the effect of ATM inhibition. These data demonstrate that multiple, parallel DNA damage signaling pathways contribute to GSC radioresistance and that combined inhibition of cell-cycle checkpoint and DNA repair targets provides the most effective means to overcome radioresistance of GSC.

Shafiq U Ahmed, Ross Carruthers, Lesley Gilmour, Salih Yildirim, Colin Watts and Anthony J Chalmers

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PURPOSE: We primarily determined whether the small animal radiation research platform could create a rat radiation cystitis model via targeted bladder irradiation (phase I). The response to treating early phase radiation cystitis in rats with transurethral catheter...