NF-κB in Cellular Senescence and Cancer Treatment

The NF-kappa B pathway transcriptionally controls a large set of target genes that play important roles in cell survival, inflammation, and immune responses. While many studies showed anti-tumorigenic and pro-survival role of NF-kappa B in cancer cells, recent findings postulate that NF-kappa B participates in a senescence-associated cytokine response, thereby suggesting a tumor restraining role of NF-kappa B. In this review, we discuss implications of the NF-kappa B signaling pathway in cancer. Particularly, we emphasize the connection of NF-kappa B with cellular senescence as a response to chemotherapy, and furthermore, present examples how distinct oncogenic network contexts surrounding NF-kappa B produce fundamentally different treatment outcomes in aggressive B-cell lymphomas as an example.