Radiation is known to cause cancer by damaging DNA, but may also induce other molecular changes in the surrounding tissue that accelerate tumour growth.
Mary Helen Barcellos-Hoff at the New York University School of Medicine and her colleagues exposed mice to radiation and then inserted cancer-prone tissue into their mammary glands and those of untreated mice. One year later, tumours had developed in all of the irradiated mice, but in only 69% of non-irradiated mice. The tumours also grew faster in the irradiated animals, and more of them were oestrogen-receptor negative, a marker of aggressive breast cancer. Furthermore, the radiation activated a protein in the surrounding tissue called TGF-β, accelerating cancer development.
The findings might help to explain why women who receive radiotherapy treatment for childhood cancer are at greater risk from early-onset breast cancer later in life.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Radiation's double whammy. Nature 473, 423 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/473423e
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/473423e