The cellular response to combined treatment with the microtubule stabilizing agent patupilone and ionizing radiation: regulation of matrix metalloproteinase activity

Abstract

The combined application of the novel, clinically relevant microtubule stabilizing agent (MTSA) patupilone and ionizing radiation (IR) is a very promising treatment modality in cancer therapy as previously investigated at a preclinical level in our laboratory. Patupilone (epothilone B) is a compound of bacterial origin, which binds to the same site on beta-tubulin as taxanes, but has number of advantages over the later, e.g. potent cytotoxicity in multi-drug resistant tumors and – due to its relatively simple chemical structure – the Show more