Table 2.
Examples of the contribution of epithelial plasticity to treatment resistance in cancer patients.
| Specific Therapy | Tumour Subtype | Status * | Phenotype # | Reference(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chemotherapy | ||||
| Platinum/etoposide | SCLC 1 | Clinical | Undifferentiated | [102] |
| Taxanes | NSCLC 1 | Clinical | Differentiated | [131] |
| Cisplatin | Ovarian | Clinical | Undifferentiated | [132] |
| Docetaxel/Cabazitaxel | Prostate | Clinical/preclinical | Differentiated | [115,133] |
| Radiotherapy | ||||
| Radiotherapy | Prostate | Clinical | Differentiated | [114,134] |
| Targeted therapy | ||||
| Temazolomide 2 | Glioblastoma MGMT-met | Clinical | Undifferentiated | [123] |
| Erlotinib 3/temsirolimus 4 | HNSCC 1 | Clinical | Differentiated | [135] |
| Cobimetinib 3 | Melanoma | Preclinical | Undifferentiated | [117] |
| Vemurafenib 3 | Melanoma | Clinical/preclinical | Undifferentiated | [117] |
| Erlotinib/gefitinib 3 | NSCLC EGFR-mut | Preclinical | Undifferentiated | [96] |
| Immunotherapy | ||||
| Nivulumab 5 | NSCLC (CTCs) 1 | Clinical | Undifferentiated | [136] |
* Clinical: study on patient tumour samples; Preclinical: study using preclinical models (like patient derived xenografts (PDXs)). # Estimated according to the tumour cell morphology. 1 SCLC: squamous cell lung cancer; HNSCC: head and neck squamous cell carcinoma; NSCLC: non-small cell lung cancer; CTCs: circulating tumour cells. 2 Alkylating cytotoxic prodrug. 3 Epidermal growth factor receptor/mitogen activated protein kinase/B-Raf protein kinase (EGFR/MAPK/BRAF) inhibitors. 4 mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor. 5 monoclonal antibody against PD ligand 1 (mAb αPD-L1).