Recent Developments in Tumor Angiogenesis

Angiogenesis is a developmental process that also plays the central role in adults during the female menstruation cycle, wound healing and neoplastic growth and metastasis. Ideally, blocking neovessel growth starves the developing tumor and induces tumor regression. Restricting the vascular ingrowth into the tumor might have adverse effect on drugs targeting the tumor. Nevertheless, anti-VEGF treatment of the neoplastic diseases when combined with chemotherapy significantly increases median survival in treated patients. This suggests alternative mechanisms of anti-angiogenesis therapy. A number of molecules that are in current clinical trials have been identified using angiogenesis models. However, current angiogenesis models have advantages and inconvenience and conclusion drawn upon their use should be interpreted with caution. Thus, it is necessary to optimize existing models and to develop new ones that take into account the complexity of the angiogenic process as it happens in many angiogenesis-related diseases and in particular in cancer.