[Neuropilins: relevant therapeutic targets to improve the treatment of cancers].

Exacerbated angiogenesis is one of the hallmarks of cancer defined by Hanahan and Weinberg. However, targeting the signaling pathway of the "Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF)" or its receptors has shown its therapeutic limits. Despite short term benefits for patients, tumors always relapse and generally become metastatic and incurable. Neuropilins 1 and 2 (NRP1, 2) whose activity was originally described in the nervous system, stimulate many parameters involved in tumor aggressiveness including cell proliferation, angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, and immune tolerance. Thus, an overexpression of NRP1 or 2 in many tumors, is correlated with a short survival of the patients. The purpose of this review is to describe the mechanisms of action involved in stimulating NRP1, 2 and to take stock of therapeutic strategies in preclinical studies or in early phase trials in patients with different cancers.