A5
Tumour neovascularisation: lessons from precancerous stem cells
Hamid Reza Mirzaei, Abbas Rezaei, Ali Mohammadi Bardbori
School of Medicine, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Tumour vascularisation is critical for tumour growth, invasion and metastasis because growth rate, invasiveness and outcome of metastasis are in turn dependent on the establishment of tumour vascular network, which provides nutrients required for cancer cell expansion and drains away wastes produced by cancer cells.
Traditionally tumour vasculature has been considered to be derived from pre-existing blood vessels (angiogenesis) and blood vessel formation through de novo production of endothelial cells (vasculogenesis), originally observed during the embryonic development. However, increasing data have suggested that tumour vasculature may be derived from cancer cells via transdifferentiation into endothelial-like cells through a process of vasculogenesis which it also called tumour mimicry. Furthermore, recent studies provide evidences that tumour vasculature can be derived at least from precancerous stem cells (pCSCs), a population of cancer cells representing premalignant stage of developing cancer stem cells (CSCs), rare cells present in tumours that have stem-like properties and having capability of self-renewal and multi-potency of differentiation, suggesting that pCSCs and CSCs are important for tumour vasculogenesis.
Herein, we will discuss not only significance of the precancerous and cancer stem cell model for understanding of tumour neovascularisation but also role of pCSCs as progenitors for establishment of tumour vasculogenesis (TVPCs). In addition, this model may explain why current antiangiogenic cancer therapy trials are facing serious challenge.
