Department of Clinical Biochemistry, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Biochemistry Department, School of Medicine, Alborz University of Medical Sciences, Karaj, Iran.
Endocr J. 2019 Apr 25;66(4):277-293. doi: 10.1507/endocrj.EJ18-0537. Epub 2019 Mar 6.
Thyroid cancer is the most prevalent endocrine cancer worldwide. Angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels, plays a pivotal role in the development and progression of tumors. Over the past years, cancer research has focused on the ability of tumors to induce newly formed blood vessel, because tumor growth and the process of cancer metastasis mainly depends on angiogenesis. Tumor neovascularization occurs following the imbalance between pro-angiogenic and anti-angiogenic factors until the tumor switches to an angiogenic phenotype. A number of signaling factors and receptors that are implicated in the regulation of angiogenesis have been identified and characterized; most notably, the vascular endothelial growth factors (VEGFs) family and their receptors, which are the main pro-angiogenic molecules during early development and in pathological conditions such as cancer. Although thyroid is a highly vascularized organ, angiogenic switch in tumors of this organ leads to the formation of a vast network of blood vessels that favors the dissemination of tumor cells to distant organs and results in deterioration of patient conditions. Accordingly, the identification of key angiogenic biomarkers for thyroid cancer can facilitate diagnosis, prognosis and clinical decision-making and also may help to discover targeting factors for effective cancer therapy as well as monitoring response to therapy. Hence, the main purposes of this review are to summarize the types and mechanisms of angiogenesis emphasizing the prominent factors implicated in thyroid cancer angiogenesis.
甲状腺癌是全球最常见的内分泌癌。血管生成，即新血管的形成，在肿瘤的发生和发展中起着关键作用。在过去的几年中，癌症研究的重点是肿瘤诱导新形成的血管的能力，因为肿瘤的生长和癌症转移的过程主要依赖于血管生成。肿瘤新生血管发生是在促血管生成和抗血管生成因子之间失衡之后，直到肿瘤转变为血管生成表型。已经确定并表征了许多参与血管生成调节的信号因子和受体；其中最显著的是血管内皮生长因子 (VEGF) 家族及其受体，它们是早期发育和癌症等病理情况下主要的促血管生成分子。尽管甲状腺是一个高度血管化的器官，但该器官肿瘤中的血管生成开关导致了广泛的血管网络的形成，这有利于肿瘤细胞向远处器官的扩散，并导致患者病情恶化。因此，确定甲状腺癌的关键血管生成生物标志物可以有助于诊断、预后和临床决策，也可能有助于发现针对有效癌症治疗的靶向因素以及监测治疗反应。因此，本综述的主要目的是总结血管生成的类型和机制，强调甲状腺癌血管生成中涉及的突出因素。
