Advance in vasculogenic mimicry in ovarian cancer (Review)

Oncol Lett. 2023 Sep 5;26(4):456. doi: 10.3892/ol.2023.14043. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Abstract

Ovarian cancer (OC) is a common and highly prevalent malignant tumor in women, associated with a high mortality rate, easy recurrence and easy metastasis, which is predominantly at an advanced stage when detected in patients. This renders the cancer more difficult to treat, and consequently it is also associated with a low survival rate, being the malignancy with the highest mortality rate among the various gynecological tumors. As an important factor affecting the development and metastasis of OC, understanding the underlying mechanism(s) through which it is formed and developed is crucial in terms of its treatment. At present, the therapeutic methods of angiogenic mimicry for OC remain in the preliminary stages of exploration and have not been applied in actual clinical practice. In the present review, various signaling pathways and factors affecting angiogenic mimicry in OC were described, and the chemical synthetic drugs, natural compound extracts, small-molecule protein antibodies and their associated targets, and so on, that target angiogenic mimicry in the treatment of OC, were discussed. The purpose of this review was to provide new research ideas and potential theoretical support for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets for OC that may be applied in the clinic, with the aim of effectively reducing its metastasis and recurrence rates.

Keywords: angiogenesis mimetic; inhibitor; ovarian cancer; signaling pathway.

Publication types

  • Review

Grants and funding

The present study was supported by the General program of Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (grant no. 2022MS08060), the General Project of Inner Mongolia Medical University (grant no. YKD2022MS045), the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Health Science and Technology Plan Project Assignment (grant nos. 202202156, 202201337 and 202202378), the Inner Mongolia Medical University Zhiyuan Talent Program (Good Learning Talent Program) (grant no. ZY0202031), Program for Young Talents of Science and Technology in Universities of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region (grant no. NJYT23050) and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region ‘Grassland Talent’ project youth innovation and entrepreneurship talent project (grant no. 2022073).