Figure 8

Model of the drug-specific activation of apoptotic pathways in HNSCC cells. Caspase-8 plays critical roles in inducing both death receptor- and mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in HNSCC cells. The caspase-8-mediated signal amplification of the mitochondrial pathway is important for determining the sensitivity to etoposide-induced and p53/p73-mediated apoptosis (A). Caspase-8 also mediates cisplatin-induced and death receptor-mediated apoptosis (B) [42].