Vascular targeted therapies in oncology

Neovascularization is intimately involved in tumor survival, progression, and spread, factors known to contribute significantly to treatment failures. Thus, strategies targeting the tumor blood vessel support network may offer not only unique therapeutic opportunities in their own right, but also novel means of enhancing the efficacies of conventional anticancer treatments. This article reviews one such therapeutic approach directed at the tumor blood vessel support network. Vascular disrupting therapies seek the destruction of the established neovasculature of actively growing tumors. The goal of these therapies is to cause a rapid and catastrophic shutdown in the vascular function of the tumor in order to arrest the blood flow and produce tumor cell death as a result of oxygen and nutrient deprivation and the build up of waste products.