# Tumour hypoxia

Source: https://nuclide.cc/terms/tumour-hypoxia/  
Nuclide record `tumour-hypoxia` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from Nuclide (nuclide.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Regions of a tumour that have outgrown their blood supply and are short of oxygen. They resist radiotherapy and some chemotherapy, and drive the tumour to become more aggressive.

## Summary

Fast-growing tumours have chaotic, leaky blood vessels, leaving pockets of cells living on very little oxygen. Hypoxic cells need up to three times the radiation dose to be killed, switch on HIF-driven survival programmes, become more invasive and are selected for genomic instability. Hypoxia can be imaged with PET tracers, measured by gene signatures and targeted with sensitisers, hypoxia-activated drugs, hyperthermia and dose escalation.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-17
- Tags: radiation-wave1

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumor_hypoxia
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumor_hypoxia

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