A strategy for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer: Targeting tumor senescent cells

Yujing Liu; Qiang Zhang; Wenjing Ni; Guang Ji; Hanchen Xu

doi:10.3389/fmolb.2023.1139840

A strategy for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancer: Targeting tumor senescent cells

Front Mol Biosci. 2023 Mar 6:10:1139840. doi: 10.3389/fmolb.2023.1139840. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yujing Liu¹, Qiang Zhang², Wenjing Ni¹, Guang Ji^{1

3}, Hanchen Xu^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Digestive Diseases, Longhua Hospital, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai, China.
² Department of Digestive Endoscopy, Jiangsu Province Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
³ Shanghai Frontiers Science Center of Disease and Syndrome Biology of Inflammatory Cancer Transformation, Shanghai, China.

Abstract

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer includes a variety of cancers with high incidence that seriously threaten the lives of people worldwide. Although treatment strategies continue to improve, patient benefits are still very limited, and the ongoing search for new treatment strategies remains a priority. Cell senescence is closely related to the occurrence and development of tumors. For GI cancer, cell senescence may not only promote cancer but also bring new opportunities for treatment. Combined with relevant studies, we review the dual role of cell senescence in GI cancer, including the mechanism of inducing cell senescence, biomarkers of senescent cells, and potential of targeted senescence therapy for GI cancer.

Keywords: age-related secretory phenotype (SASP); aging markers; cancer therapy; cell senescence; gastrointestinal (GI) cancer.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This work was supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China, No.82104466; Shanghai Rising-Star Program, No. 20QA1409300; and the Program for Young Eastern Scholar at Shanghai Institutions of Higher Learning, No. QD2019034.