Breast cancer angiogenesis - New approaches to therapy via antiangiogenesis, hypoxic activated drugs, and vascular targeting

Abstract

Several groups have shown that quantitation of tumor angiogenesis by counting blood vessels in primary breast cancer gives an independent assessment of prognosis. Poor prognosis is associated with high blood vessel counts. We have shown that the rate of cell division in endothelial cells is much higher in breast tumours than in normal breast. Breast cancer cell lines and primary human breast tumours express a wide range of vascular growth factors, including VEGF, placenta growth factor, pleiotrophin, TGFβ1, acidic and basic FGF, and platelet-derived endothelial cell growth factor. Inhibiting angiogenesis by blocking vascular growth factors would be difficult with highly specific agents, but ..