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Circulating angiogenesis regulators in cancer patients.
1Department of Surgery, Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital, Japan. kurochan@dd.iij4u.or.jp
The International Journal of Biological Markers
|April 6, 2001
Summary
Circulating angiogenesis regulators like VEGF and bFGF show potential for cancer risk assessment, early detection, and monitoring treatment response. Further research is needed to establish their clinical utility.
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Molecular Biology
- Biochemistry
Background:
- Angiogenesis regulators circulate in blood and may act as endocrine factors in cancer.
- Key regulators include basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF).
- Other factors like angiogenin, pleiotrophin, thrombospondin (TSP), and endostatin (ES) are also implicated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a comprehensive review of the clinical value of circulating angiogenesis regulators in cancer patients.
- To explore their potential roles in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring.
Main Methods:
- A systematic literature search was conducted using MEDLINE.
- Manual searches of reference lists from identified publications were also performed.
Main Results:
- Approximately 100 publications were reviewed up to 1999.
- Circulating angiogenic factors (bFGF, VEGF, HGF, angiogenin) have been studied as diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive markers.
- The clinical significance of negative regulators is less understood, with unclear sources and externalization mechanisms.
Conclusions:
- Circulating angiogenesis regulators lack established clinical utility but show promise.
- Potential applications include cancer risk assessment, early detection, differentiating benign from malignant disease, and predicting treatment response.
- Further investigation is required to determine the specific clinical utility of each factor.