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Is vasculogenesis crucial for the regrowth of irradiated tumours?

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 11, page 532 (2011)Cite this article

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We have read with interest the Review by Begg, Stewart and Vens (Strategies to improve radiotherapy with targeted drugs. Nature Rev. Cancer 11, 239–253 (2011))1, which included discussion on the potential benefits of modulating the tumour microenvironment to improve radiotherapy. In their Review, the authors state that, “vasculogenesis (vascular formation from circulating BMDCs (bone marrow-derived cells)) has been shown to be crucial for the growth of tumours that recur after radiotherapy”. We agree that new vessel formation is an important determinant of tumour regrowth after irradiation. However, we question the authors' conclusion that vasculogenesis is crucial in this context.

To our knowledge, there are no published reports showing greater recruitment and incorporation of non-irradiated endothelial progenitor (or precursor) cells (EPCs) — or any other BMDCs — into the vessels of tumours that are regrowing after local irradiation compared with their ionizing radiation-naive counterparts. In fact, three animal studies have directly tested this hypothesis either in irradiated tumours or using tumours implanted in pre-irradiated beds — situations in which the local endothelial cells that are capable of neovascularization have been substantially damaged by ionizing radiation. None of these studies found evidence for increased BMDC incorporation into the vessels of such tumours2,3,4. Moreover, one of these papers — overlooked by Begg and colleagues in their Review — emphasized that the recruitment of EPCs does not facilitate tumour regrowth after local irradiation4.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiation Oncology, Sergey V. Kozin, Dan G. Duda, Lance L. Munn and Rakesh K. Jain are at the Steele Laboratory for Tumor Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 20114, USA.,

    Sergey V. Kozin, Dan G. Duda, Lance L. Munn & Rakesh K. Jain

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  1. Sergey V. Kozin
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  2. Dan G. Duda
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Correspondence to Rakesh K. Jain.

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Kozin, S., Duda, D., Munn, L. et al. Is vasculogenesis crucial for the regrowth of irradiated tumours?. Nat Rev Cancer 11, 532 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc3007-c1

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