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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Tumor hypoxia and therapeutic resistance

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For many years, the identification of tumor hypoxia, its systematic characterization and the assessment of its clinical relevance were not possible due to the lack of methods suitable for the routine measurement of intratumoral oxygen tensions in patients. In the late 1980s, a novel and clinically applicable standardized procedure was established enabling the determination of tumor oxygenation in accessible primary tumors, local recurrences, and metastatic lesions in patients using a computerized polarographic needle electrode system (Vaupel et al. 1991; Hockel et al. 1991). Within a relatively short period of time, the significance of tumor oxygenation for therapy outcome became evident in numerous experimental and clinical studies (for a review see Vaupel and Kelleher 1999).