An in vitro screening system for anti-cancer drugs cannot exactly reflect the efficacy of drugs in vivo, without mimicking the tumour microenvironment (TME), which comprises cancer cells interacting with blood vessels and fibroblasts. Additionally, t...
Colorectal cancer liver metastases (CRCLMs) have two main histopathological growth patterns (HPGs): desmoplastic (DHGP) and replacement (RHGP). The vascularization in DHGP tumours is angiogenic, while the RHGP tumours exert vessel co-option vasculatu...
Vertebrates have developed a network of blood vessels and nerves throughout the body that enables them to perform complex higher-order functions and maintain homeostasis. The 16th-century anatomical text ‘De humani corporis fabrica’ descr...
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a challenging malignancy, mainly due to its resistance to chemotherapy and its complex tumour microenvironment characterised by stromal desmoplasia. There is a need for new strategies to improve the del...
Vasculogenic mimicry (VM), the ability of tumour cells to form functional microvasculature without an endothelial lining, may contribute to anti-angiogenic treatment resistance in glioblastoma. We aimed to assess the extent of VM formation in primary...
Diagnostic imaging of aggressive cancer with a high stroma content may benefit from the use of imaging contrast agents targeted with peptides that have high binding affinity to the extracellular matrix (ECM). In this study, we report the use of super...
Tumour angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis are hallmarks of cancer and have been associated with tumour progression, tumour metastasis and poor patient prognosis. Many factors regulate angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis in cancer including non-coding...
Blood vessels transport blood and deliver essential molecules to cells. In cancer, the tumour vasculature evolves very differently from healthy tissue, not only in morphology but also in functionality. Comprehensive 3D in vivo imaging of the tumour m...
Background: Pancreatic cancers can involve large blood vessels early, making complete resection technically challenging or impossible. A minimally invasive treatment that clears vessels from encasing tumours could potentially enable curative surgery....
The aggressiveness of solid cancers, such as melanoma, relies on their metastatic potential. It has become evident that this key cause of mortality is largely conferred by the tumour-associated stromal cells, especially endothelial cells. In addition...
Background/Objectives: The tumour microenvironment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) is highly complex, influencing both vascular function and therapy response. P21-activated kinases (PAKs) are key regulators of the cellular and immune system...
Angiogenesis is a term that describes the formation of new blood and lymphatic vessels from a pre-existing vasculature. This allows tumour cells to acquire sustenance in the form of nutrients and oxygen and the ability to evacuate metabolic waste. As...
Although chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells have shown impressive clinical success against haematological malignancies such as B cell lymphoma and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, their efficacy against non-haematological solid malignancies has be...
We review the latest development in non-angiogenic tumours. We focused on the last 3 years except the rarer tumours, for which the papers are older. Following the explanation of the modified hallmark of cancer, inducing angiogenesis and/or accessing...
14 November 2023
Recently, many studies demonstrated the fundamental role of the tumour microenvironment (TME) in cancer progression. Here, we describe a method to visualize in 3D the behaviour of tumours in zebrafish embryos. We highlight two major actors of the TME...
The tumour microenvironment in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA) regulates vascular function and therapeutic response. P21-activated kinases (PAKs) regulate cytoskeletal dynamics and angiogenesis; however, their roles in vascular reprogramming a...
Glioblastomas (GBM) are aggressive brain tumours with a poor prognosis despite heavy therapy that combines surgical resection and radio-chemotherapy. The presence of a subpopulation of GBM stem cells (GSC) contributes to tumour aggressiveness, resist...
Background: The pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) microenvironment is highly fibrotic and hypoxic, with poor immune cell infiltration. Recently, we showed that nucleolin (NCL) inhibition normalizes tumour vessels and impairs PDAC growth. Method...
Well-differentiated lung neuroendocrine tumours (Lu-NETs), classified as typical (TC) and atypical (AC) carcinoids, represent 30% of NETs. Angiogenesis plays an essential role in NET development and progression. A higher vascular network is a marker...
Several strategies have been developed to modulate the tumour vasculature for cancer therapy including anti-angiogenesis and vascular normalisation. Vasculature modulation results in changes to the tumour microenvironment including oxygenation and im...
The effectiveness of immunotherapy against solid tumours is dependent on the appropriate leucocyte subsets trafficking and accumulating in the tumour microenvironment (TME) with recruitment occurring at the endothelium. Such recruitment involves inte...
Angiogenesis has been associated with numbers of solid tumours. Anti-angiogenesis drugs starve tumours of nutrients and oxygen but also make it difficult for a chemo reagent to distribute into a tumour, leading to aggressive tumour growth. Anti-angio...
Tissue vasculature provides the main conduit for metastasis in solid tumours including head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Vascular mimicry (VM) is an endothelial cell (EC)-independent neovascularization pattern, whereby tumour cells gener...
Beyond the conventional perception of solid tumours as mere masses of cancer cells, advanced cancer research focuses on the complex contributions of tumour-associated host cells that are known as “tumour microenvironment” (TME). It has been long appr...
This article presents the accurate and current state of knowledge regarding the process of angiogenesis in neoplastic cells and its importance for tumour development. It provides a detailed review of the different types of angiogenesis with a brief d...
Subcutaneous lesions in dogs are common in clinical practice. This prospective clinical study aims to compare B-flow and CEUS for the characterization of subcutaneous lesions evaluating their usefulness to distinguish benign subcutaneous lesions from...
The tumour microenvironment is the surrounding of a tumour, including blood vessels, fibroblasts, signaling molecules, the extracellular matrix and immune cells, especially neutrophils and monocyte-derived macrophages. In a tumour setting, macrophage...
Angiogenesis is one of the hallmarks of cancer, and the establishment of new blood vessels is vital to allow for a tumour to grow beyond 1–2 mm in size. The angiogenic switch is the term given to the point where the number or activity of the pr...
The acidic tumour microenvironment is now recognized as a tumour phenotype that drives cancer somatic evolution and disease progression, causing cancer cells to become more invasive and to metastasise. This property of solid tumours reflects a comple...
Head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs) represent a diverse group of malignancies, both clinically and biologically, with human papillomavirus (HPV) infection playing a significant role. HPV-positive tumours generally tend to have a better pr...
Our body is constantly exposed to pathogens or external threats, but with the immune response that our body can develop, we can fight off and defeat possible attacks or infections. Nevertheless, sometimes this threat comes from an internal factor. Si...
Basement membrane (BM) zone-associated collagen XV (ColXV) has been shown to suppress the malignancy of tumour cells, and its restin domain can inhibit angiogenesis. In human breast cancer, as well as in many other human carcinomas, ColXV is lost fro...
Deregulated angiogenesis has been identified as a key contributor in a number of pathological conditions including cancer. It is a complex process, which involves highly regulated interaction of multiple signalling molecules. The pro-angiogenic signa...
Optimising drug delivery to tumours remains an obstacle to effective cancer treatment. A prerequisite for successful chemotherapy is that the drugs reach all tumour cells. The vascular network of tumours, extravasation across the capillary wall and p...
Tumour-associated angiogenesis play key roles in tumour growth and cancer metastasis. Consequently, several anti-angiogenic drugs such as sunitinib and axitinib have been approved for use as anti-cancer therapies. However, the majority of these drugs...
The secondary structures of Scherer commonly known as perineuronal and perivascular satellitosis have been identified as a histopathological hallmark of diffuse, invasive, high-grade gliomas. They are recognised as perineuronal satellitosis when clus...
Hepatic metastatic growth is dependent upon stromal factors including the matrisomal proteins that make up the extracellular matrix (ECM). Laminins are ECM glycoproteins with several functions relevant to tumour progression including angiogenesis. We...
Tumours are complex systems of genetically diverse malignant cells that proliferate in the presence of a heterogeneous microenvironment consisting of host derived microvasculature, stromal, and immune cells. The components of the tumour microenvironm...
Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are relatively rare neoplasms but represent one of the most frequent types of primary small-bowel tumours. Their incidence is rising, and this is most likely because of their more frequent early-stage detection, physicia...
Melanoma is one of the most aggressive and progressive skin cancers. It develops from normal pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes, so it is important to know the mechanism behind such transformations. The study of metastasis mechanisms is cru...
ADAM10 is a transmembrane metalloprotease that regulates diverse signalling functions via the shedding of membrane protein ectodomains, and is implicated in tumour development, including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and gastrointestinal (GI) cancers...
Cushing’s syndrome (CS) is a set of clinical symptoms which occur as a result of hypercortisolemia. Endogenous ACTH-dependent CS related to an ectopic ACTH-secreting tumour constitutes 12%–17% of CS cases and is one of the most common cau...
Hemangiopericytoma is a malignant vascular tumour of soft tissue. Microscopically, the tumour shows tightly packed cellular areas surrounding thin-walled branching blood vessels. Traditionally these tumours are treated using wide surgical excision. O...
Background: Somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) are expressed in most neuroendocrine neoplasms, particularly in gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, and have been utilised as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. The radioiodinated somatos...
The interplay between oncolytic virus infection and tumour hypoxia is particularly unexplored in vivo, although hypoxia is present in virtually all solid carcinomas. In this study, oncolytic adenovirus infection foci were found within pimonidazole-re...
Angiogenesis is an active process, regulating new vessel growth, and is crucial for the survival and growth of tumours next to other complex factors in the tumour microenvironment. We present possible molecular imaging approaches for tumour vasculari...
Primary tumours, particularly from major solid organs, are able to disseminate into the blood and lymphatic system and spread to distant sites. These secondary metastases to other major organs are the most lethal aspect of cancer, accounting for the...
Glioblastoma (GBM) is a highly aggressive brain tumour characterised by a poor prognosis and resistance to anti-angiogenic treatments. Vasculogenic mimicry (VM), in which tumour cells form vessel-like structures independent of endothelial cells, has...
The presence of “hypoxic” tissue (with O2 levels of <0.1 mmHg) in solid tumours, resulting in quiescent tumour cells distant from blood vessels, but capable of being reactivated by reoxygenation following conventional therapy (radiatio...
Background: Molecular nuclear medicine plays a pivotal role for diagnosis in a preclinical phase, in genetically susceptible patients, for radio-guided surgery, for disease relapse evaluation, and for therapy decision-making and follow-up. This is po...
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