Remodeling of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis in cervical cancer development

Abstract

Ability to stimulate angiogenesis/lymphangiogenesis is recognized as an inherent feature of cancer cells providing necessary conditions for their growth and dissemination. “Angiogenic switch” is one of the earliest consequences of malignant transformation that encompasses a great number of genes and triggers a complex set of signaling cascades in endothelial cells. The processes of tumor microvasculature development are closely connected to the steps of carcinogenesis (from benign lesions to invasive forms) and occur through multiple deviations from the norm. Analysis of expression of proangiogenic factors at successive steps of cervical cancer development (intraepithelial neoplasia, cancer in situ, microinvasive, and invasive cancer) enables to reconstruct the regulatory mechanisms of (lymph-)angiogenesis and to discriminate the most important components. This review presents detailed analysis of literature data on expression of the key regulators of angiogenesis in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia and cervical cancer. Their possible involvement in molecular mechanisms of neoplastic transformation of epithelial cells, as well as invasion and tumor metastasis is discussed. Correlation between expression of proangiogenic molecular factors and various clinicopathological parameters is considered, the potential of their use in molecular diagnostics and targeted therapy of cervical cancer is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to relatively poorly studied regulators of lymphangiogenesis and “non-VEGF dependent”, or alternative, angiogenic pathways that constitute the prospect of future research in the field.