Genome-Wide cDNA Microarray Screening of Gene Expression Profiles Correlated with Resistance to Anti-Cancer Drug Treatment and Radiation in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Chemotherapy and radiation therapy are an acceptable treatment modality for patients with oral squamous cell carcinomas (OSCC). However, the response of carcinoma to radiation and/or chemotherapy varies in each patient. To choose the proper therapy as well as to avoid untoward side effects, a useful method to predicting the effectiveness of radiation and/or chemotherapy for individual patient must be established. To identify genes correlating with sensitivity to anti-cancer drug and radiation in oral cancer treatment, we performed cDNA microarray analysis of OSCC cell lines. In OSCC cell lines, we compared the gene expression profiles with the sensitivities, that were measured by CD-DST method, to five anti-cancer drugs and with the radiation sensitivity assessed by a standard colony formation assay. In this study, we found significant associations between dozens of gene expression levels and resistance to anti-cancer drugs and radiation.