The relationship between SC35 and E2F1 in the apoptotic response of Research Paper

The relationship between SC35 and E2F1 in the apoptotic response of head and neck cancer cells following cisplatin treatment - Research Paper Example The impact of head and neck cancers on the health care system can be gauged by the fact that each year almost 500,000 new cases of head and neck cancers occur globally, with almost two thirds of the cases occurring in developing nations (Marur & Forastiere, 2008; Lung, Tascau, Almasan, & Muresan, 2007). There are several risk factors for the development of head and neck cancer but amongst those, the most important are tobacco use and alcohol consumption (Forastiere, Koch, Trotti, & Sidransky, 2001). Studies have revealed that the consumption of tobacco and alcohol has the strongest association with these cancers and these factors have a synergistic effect in the causation of head and neck cancers (Leemans, Braakhuis, & Brakenhoff, 2011). It has been found that tobacco usage increases the risk of developing head and neck cancer from five to up to twenty five-fold (Marur & Forastiere, 2008). Moreover, the use of both tobacco and alcohol leads to a forty times greater risk for these can cers (Marur & Forastiere, 2008). ... Over the last few years, there has been an increase in the incidence of cancers occurring at the base of the tongue and the tonsils. This changing trend has been attributed to the increase in the occurrence of HPV-associated squamous cell carcinoma (discussed above) which occurs due to HPV infection following oral sex, which has become an increasingly popular practice amongst the younger generation (Marur & Forastiere, 2008). More recently, it has become common practice to classify head and neck tumors into two main subcategories based in the underlying aetiologies and risk factors, viz. HPV-positive and HPV-negative head and neck tumors. Studies have revealed that these tumors belonging to these two categories differ in not only the aetiology and causative factors but also have different underlying molecular mechanisms, which cause them to have different levels of tumor severity and prognosis (Leemans, Braakhuis, & Brakenhoff, 2011). Head and neck cancer is a heterogeneous disease, which can arise due to several different molecular mechanisms, each of which have different implications for the cancer invasiveness, severity, response to treatment, prognosis and patient survival rates (Leemans, Braakhuis, & Brakenhoff, 2011). Cancers are shown to be clonal replications of cells that have acquired certain genetic alterations which cause them to undergo unchecked cellular proliferation. These genetic alterations can occur in two main classes of genes which are important in the cell cycle, viz. proto-oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes (Forastiere, Koch, Trotti, & Sidransky, 2001) In the case of tumors of the head and neck, studies have revealed that the most commonly implicated genetic change in tumors of this region is the loss of region 9p21