Abstract
Angiogenesis is a hallmark of cancer [1] and occurs in most human tumors. It has been shown that angiogenic tumors are more likely to develop metastasis and exhibit resistance to standard cancer therapies [2], making tumor angiogenesis a prognostic and sometimes predictive biomarker [3, 4]. Although new imaging technologies, such as dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI) or positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) scans, are clinically available to visualize tumor angiogenesis in vivo [5, 6], histological assessment of tumor angiogenesis remains a technique of interest, as it can provide information on the capillary level of newly developed microvessels in different parts of the tumor [7]. Via histological examination, the relationship between tumor microvessels and other clinicopathological tumor characteristics can be evaluated as well [8].
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Notes
- 1.
CD31 and CD34 are the most commonly used endothelial markers due to their consistent and reliable results in paraffin-embedded tissues; however, depending on the objective of the study, other markers, such as vascular endothelial growth factor receptors (VEGFRs) or CD105, can be used.
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Fakhrejahani, E., Toi, M. (2015). Assessing Tumor Angiogenesis in Histological Samples. In: Slevin, M., McDowell, G. (eds) Handbook of Vascular Biology Techniques. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9716-0_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9716-0_20
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