Angiogenesis, Vascular Imaging, and Therapeutic Approaches in Ovarian Tumors

TL;DRAbstract

Angiogenesis has multiple critical purposes in the normal human ovary as described in the Chapters 7, 8, and 9. While the component processes underlying neovascularization may be similar between physiologic and tumor-associated angiogenesis (Kohn and Liotta, 1995), angiogenesis has a very different purpose in the context of malignant and nonmalignant ovarian neoplasms. Physiologic angiogenesis supplies nutrients necessary for normal cyclical ovarian function, production, and maintenance of the placenta during pregnancy, and development of the fetus. Those same vessels provide an outbound route for hormones and growth factors of ovarian origin and cellular and subcellular waste products. However, in malignancy an additional function is attributed to the vascular tree: provision of the conduit for tumor cell dissemination. This latter function allows completion of the key step that separates nonmalignant tumors from malignant tumors—the potential for invasion and development of tumor sat

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