The pleiotropic functions of reactive oxygen species in cancer

Abstract

Cellular redox homeostasis is an essential, dynamic process that ensures the balance between reducing and oxidizing reactions within cells and thus has implications across all areas of biology. Changes in levels of reactive oxygen species can disrupt redox homeostasis, leading to oxidative or reductive stress that contributes to the pathogenesis of many malignancies, including cancer. From transformation and tumor initiation to metastatic dissemination, increasing reactive oxygen species in cancer cells can paradoxically promote or suppress the tumorigenic process, depending on the extent of redox stress, its spatiotemporal characteristics and the tumor microenvironment. Here we review how redox regulation influences tumorigenesis, highlighting therapeutic opportunities enabled by redox-related alterations in cancer cells.