Cellular senescence: a promising strategy for cancer therapy

Cellular senescence, a permanent state of cell cycle arrest, is believed to have originally evolved to limit the proliferation of old or damaged cells. However, it has been recently shown that cellular senescence is a physiological and pathological program contributing to embryogenesis, immune response, and wound repair, as well as aging and age-related diseases. Unlike replicative senescence associated with telomere attrition, premature senescence rapidly occurs in response to various intrinsic and extrinsic insults. Thus, cellular senescence has also been considered suppressive mechanism of tumorigenesis. Current studies have revealed that therapy-induced senescence (TIS), a type of senescence caused by traditional cancer therapy, could play a critical role in cancer treatment. In this review, we outline the key features and the molecular pathways of cellular senescence. Better understanding of cellular senescence will provide insights into the development of powerful strategies to control cellular senescence for therapeutic benefit. Lastly, we discuss existing strategies for the induction of cancer cell senescence to improve efficacy of anticancer therapy.