Summary
It appears that free radicals may be involved in the initiation, promotion and progression phase of carcinogenesis. Whilst free radicals can cause DNA alteration, they can also promote cell proliferation particularly of cells harbouring altered growth response genes. They appear to stimulate biochemical pathways common to those utilised by normal cellular growth factors. Althought inflammatory cells associated with tumors may serve as a source for such growth promoting active oxygen species, tumor cells themselves constitutively release superoxide. Not only may this released superoxide enhance tumor cell growth, but it may also be involved in the oxidative inactivation of serum antiproteases in the environment of tumor cells. This may facilitate the action of tumor proteases in growth responses and in metastasis. Consideration of the tumor phenotype also suggests various ‘antioxidant’ strategies aimed at tumor therapy.
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© 1993 Birkhäuser Verlag Basel/Switzerland
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Burdon, R.H. (1993). Carcinogenesis and Free Radicals. In: Poli, G., Albano, E., Dianzani, M.U. (eds) Free Radicals: from Basic Science to Medicine. Molecular and Cell Biology Updates. Birkhäuser Basel. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-9116-5_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-0348-9116-5_16
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