Mechanism exploration and future prospects of antiangiogenic agents improving tumor blood supply and oxygenation / 中华胃肠外科杂志

ABSTRACT

The growth and metastasis of tumor is angiogenesis-dependent. Antiangiogenic agents have been clinically used to treat malignant tumors with the mechanisms of regressing tumor vasculature and inhibiting vascular recurrence which restrain tumor growth and metastasis. Clinical evidences indicate that antiangiogenic agents combined with chemotherapy or radiotherapy potentiate the effects of treatment. However, radiation therapy and chemotherapy depend on ample blood flow to the tumor to deliver oxygen and drugs. Theoretically, it is paradoxical with evidences that these therapies work together rather than against each other. "Vascular normalization" theory was raised to explain this paradox. And accumulating data show that antiangiogenic agents transiently "normalize" tumor vasculature before causing vascular regression, so that improve tumor blood supply and increase tissue oxygenation. New views and challenges about antiangiogenic agents come out with the discovery of "normalization window". In this review, we summarized the mechanism, related researches and future prospects of antiangiogenic agents improving blood supply and oxygenation.