Smorenburg S M, Vink R, te Lintelo M, Tigchelaar W, Maas A, Büller H R, van Noorden C J
Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Department of Cell Biology and Histology, The Netherlands.
Clin Exp Metastasis. 1999 Jul;17(5):451-6. doi: 10.1023/a:1006648429914.
Recent randomized trials have suggested that treatment with low molecular weight heparin (LMWH) improves survival of cancer patients with venous thromboembolism, as compared to treatment with unfractionated heparin (UFH). Experimental studies have shown that UFH has activities besides its anticoagulant function which may affect progression of malignancy, including stimulation of new blood vessel formation. In contrast, LMWH has been suggested to inhibit angiogenesis. In the present study, we compared quantitatively the effects of treatment with UFH, LMWH or placebo on the development of experimentally induced colon carcinoma metastases in rat liver and on tumor-associated angiogenesis. It is shown that UFH and LMWH in therapeutic dosages neither affect development of metastases nor tumor blood vessel formation in this animal model. These results indicate that heparins do not affect colon cancer metastasis in liver. Further studies in other animal models are required to establish the mechanisms by which heparins potentially affect cancer.
近期的随机试验表明，与普通肝素（UFH）治疗相比，低分子量肝素（LMWH）治疗可提高患有静脉血栓栓塞的癌症患者的生存率。实验研究表明，UFH除了具有抗凝功能外，还具有可能影响恶性肿瘤进展的活性，包括刺激新血管形成。相比之下，有人认为LMWH可抑制血管生成。在本研究中，我们定量比较了UFH、LMWH或安慰剂治疗对大鼠肝脏实验性诱导的结肠癌转移发展以及肿瘤相关血管生成的影响。结果表明，在该动物模型中，治疗剂量的UFH和LMWH既不影响转移的发展，也不影响肿瘤血管形成。这些结果表明，肝素不影响结肠癌在肝脏中的转移。需要在其他动物模型中进行进一步研究，以确定肝素潜在影响癌症的机制。
