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Targeting Angiogenic Factors for the Treatment of Medulloblastoma

  • Neuro-oncology (GJ Lesser, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion Statement

Medulloblastoma (MB) is the most frequent pediatric brain tumor. Despite conventional therapy, MB patients have high mortality and morbidity rates mainly due to the incomplete understanding of the molecular and cellular processes involved in development of this cancer. Similar to other solid tumors, MB demonstrated high endothelial cell proliferation and angiogenic activity, wherein new blood vessels arise from the pre-existing vasculature, a process named angiogenesis. MB angiogenesis is considered a hallmark for MB development, progression, and metastasis emphasizing its potential target for antitumor therapy. However, angiogenesis is tightly regulated by a set of angiogenic factors making it a complex process to be targeted. Although agents targeting these factors and their receptors are early in development, the potential for their targeting may translate into improvement in the clinical care for MB patients. In this review, we focus on the most potent angiogenic factors and their corresponding receptors, highlighting their basic properties and expression in MB. We describe their contribution to MB tumorigenesis and angiogenesis and the potential therapeutic targeting of these factors.

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  1. Zahraa Saker and Mahdi Rizk contributed equally to this work as co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Research Center, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

    Zahraa Saker MSc, Mahdi Rizk MSc & Sanaa M. Nabha PhD

  2. Arkadi M. Rywlin M.D. Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Mount Sinai Medical Center, 4300 Alton Rd, Miami Beach, FL, 33140, USA

    Hisham F. Bahmad MD, MSc

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  1. Zahraa Saker MSc
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Contributions

Z. Saker and S. Nabha conceived the concept and idea of the present review. Z. Saker, M. Rizk and S. Nabha worked on the study design strategy and selected the topics to be discussed. Z. Saker, M. Rizk, and H. Bahmad did literature searches and screened titles and abstracts for relevance. Z. Saker and M. Rizk abstracted the data from the eligible full text articles, analyzed, and interpreted the data and drafted the manuscript. H. Bahmad and S. Nabha critically revised the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the final draft.

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Correspondence to Hisham F. Bahmad MD, MSc or Sanaa M. Nabha PhD.

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Zahraa Saker declares that she has no conflict of interest. Mahdi Rizk declares that he has no conflict of interest. Hisham F. Bahmad declares that he has no conflict of interest. Sanaa M. Nabha declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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Saker, Z., Rizk, M., Bahmad, H.F. et al. Targeting Angiogenic Factors for the Treatment of Medulloblastoma. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 23, 864–886 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-022-00981-1

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