A New Antitumor Direction: Tumor-Specific Endothelial Cells

Jing Liang; Shouqi Wang; Guowei Zhang; Baoyu He; Qingli Bie; Bin Zhang

doi:10.3389/fonc.2021.756334

A New Antitumor Direction: Tumor-Specific Endothelial Cells

Front Oncol. 2021 Dec 20:11:756334. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2021.756334. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Jing Liang¹, Shouqi Wang², Guowei Zhang², Baoyu He¹, Qingli Bie^{1

3}, Bin Zhang^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Laboratory Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, China.
² Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Affiliated Hospital of Jining Medical University, Jining Medical University, Jining, China.
³ Institute of Forensic Medicine and Laboratory Medicine, Jining Medical University, Jining, China.

Abstract

Targeting tumor blood vessels is an important strategy for tumor therapies. At present, antiangiogenic drugs are known to have significant clinical effects, but severe drug resistance and side effects also occur. Therefore, new specific targets for tumor and new treatment methods must be developed. Tumor-specific endothelial cells (TECs) are the main targets of antiangiogenic therapy. This review summarizes the differences between TECs and normal endothelial cells, assesses the heterogeneity of TECs, compares tumorigenesis and development between TECs and normal endothelial cells, and explains the interaction between TECs and the tumor microenvironment. A full and in-depth understanding of TECs may provide new insights for specific antitumor angiogenesis therapies.

Keywords: antiangiogenic therapy; tumor angiogenesis; tumor heterogeneity; tumor microenvironment; tumor-specific endothelial cells.

Publication types

Review