International researchers led by Michigan's Beaumont Health System discovered two biomarkers that helped predict resistance to radiation therapy for patients with squamous cell cancer of the head and neck. They made their finding after screening thousands of genes in two different groups. The idea is that by knowing how a patient will respond to radiation therapy, if at all, physicians could pursue a more personalized treatment for that particular patient. Such a tool could also allow for better diagnosis of a patient and the calculation of that patient's odds of survival. Details are published in the European Journal of Cancer. Release