Table 1 Classification of tumour blood vesselsa

From: Why are tumour blood vessels abnormal and why is it important to know?

MV

Greatly enlarged, tortuous, thin-walled, pericyte-poor hyperpermeable sinusoids

Capillaries

Similar to normal capillaries

GMP

Tangles of tiny vessels immersed in a complex mixture of irregularly ordered pericytes and extensive multilayered basement membrane

VM

Large vessels with an irregular coat of smooth muscle cells

FA and DV

Greatly enlarged, tortuous smooth muscle-cell-coated vessels that supply and drain the complex of angiogenic blood vessels

  1. DV=draining veins; FA=feeder arteries; GMP=glomeruloid microvascular proliferations; MV=mother vessels; VM=vascular malformations.
  2. MV, capillaries, GMP and VM result from angiogenesis; FA and DV result, respectively, from arteriogenesis and venogenesis.
  3. aIn addition, red blood-cell-filled spaces lined by tumour cells rather than by vascular endothelium have been described in some tumours, particularly ocular melanomas, and are referred to as ‘vascular mimicry’ (Folberg et al, 2000).
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