Assessment of hypoxia by pimonidazole staining following radiotherapy

The rapid proliferation of cancer cells and the aberrant vasculature present in most solid tumors frequently result in the lack of oxygen generating a hypoxic tumor microenvironment. Low levels of oxygen not only affect the tumor cell biology and tumorigenesis, but also the other components of the tumor microenvironment such as the tumor stroma and the immune infiltrate, promoting a more suppressive environment. In addition, tumor hypoxia has been associated with reduced sensitivity to chemotherapy (CH) and radiotherapy (RT), leading to poor outcomes in cancer patients. Therefore, the evaluation of tumor oxygen status has become clinically relevant. Tumor hypoxia can be assessed by different methods that include the analysis of the oxygen concentration or the expression of endogenous markers directly related to hypoxia. In this paper, we focus on the use of the hypoxia-specific marker pimonidazole as a straightforward way to measure tumor hypoxia following radiotherapy in a preclinical melanoma model.