Involvement of Reactive Oxygen Species in the Mechanisms Associated with Cervical Cancer Specific Treatment
S. Marinescu, R. Anghel, M.I. Gruia, M. BeuranOriginal article, no. 6, 2014
Cervical cancer represents a genuine health issue in Romania.The courses of treatment applied are complex, and theaccompanying biochemical mechanisms are yet to be fullyunderstood. Thus, radiotherapy, which induces reactive oxygenspecies, can lead to failure of treatment in hypoxic tissues,tissues which are difficult to identify due to the small quantityin which these cytotoxic species are produced. As a result, theaim of this paper is to identify the production and role ofreactive oxygen species, as well as the manner of activation ofendogenous antioxidant defense mechanisms in cervicalcancer patients admitted to the Oncologic Institute ofBucharest. To this purpose the biochemical parameters ofoxidative stress were identified in 30 patients with cervicaltumour localization, prior to surgery. The results obtainedhave showed that a production of reactive oxygen species isidentifiable in these patients, having lipids as a primarytarget and leading to their peroxidation. The extension ofprotein oxidative degradation takes place at a much lower value, as well as the activation of endogenous antioxidantdefence systems, comparing to our expectations. To conclude,we consider that when the production of active oxygenmetabolites takes place in small concentrations, associatedwith hypoxia, the signals transmitted are towards modifyingthe phenotype under anaerobic conditions into one activatingneovascularization, angiogenesis initiation, new cell growthand proliferation. The moment that this phase is overcome anew oxidative stress is installed, one potentially destructivefor biomolecules essential to life, but also useful for furthertreatment, such as radiotherapy.
