Battling breast cancer: new insights into angiogenesis and drug resistance

Breast cancer's resistance to treatment is a major hurdle in improving patient outcomes. A recent study explores how tumor angiogenesis—the formation of abnormal blood vessels in tumors—plays a pivotal role in fostering drug resistance. The research highlights how these blood vessels hinder drug delivery and create a hostile tumor environment, reducing the effectiveness of therapies. It also investigates the potential of anti-angiogenic treatments to normalize these vessels, enhancing drug efficacy and offering new hope for patients.

Breast cancer, the most common cancer among women, is notorious for its ability to develop resistance to a wide range of treatments, including surgery, chemotherapy, targeted therapies, and immunotherapy. Central to this resistance is angiogenesis—the abnormal formation of blood vessels within tumors. These newly formed vessels exacerbate tumor hypoxia and obstruct the delivery of therapeutic agents, complicating treatment efforts. Understanding how angiogenesis contributes to drug resistance is essential for developing innovative therapeutic strategies. Given the urgency of the issue, this research is crucial to advancing our fight against breast cancer.

Researchers from Zhejiang Chinese Medical University have made significant strides in understanding the connection between angiogenesis and drug resistance in breast cancer. Published (DOI: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2023.0515) in Cancer Biology & Medicine, the review provides fresh insights into how abnormal blood vessels formed through angiogenesis hinder drug delivery, creating a challenging tumor microenvironment. The research explores how anti-angiogenic therapies could reverse these effects, potentially enhancing the efficacy of existing treatments and offering a new avenue for combating resistance in breast cancer.

This research offers a detailed examination of the mechanisms by which angiogenesis contributes to drug resistance in breast cancer. The study explains how the aberrant blood vessels resulting from angiogenesis not only worsen tumor oxygen deficiency (hypoxia) but also obstruct the delivery of drugs to the tumor site, undermining treatment efforts. A key focus of the study is the potential of anti-angiogenic therapies, which aim to normalize these blood vessels and restore effective drug distribution. The paper evaluates various anti-angiogenic drugs, their mechanisms in reversing resistance, and their synergistic effects when combined with other therapies like chemotherapy, targeted treatment, or immunotherapy. These findings suggest that incorporating anti-angiogenesis strategies could greatly enhance the effectiveness of current breast cancer therapies, leading to better patient outcomes.

Dr. Jiancheng Mou, the lead investigator, underscores the significance of these findings: “Our study demonstrates that angiogenesis is a central driver of drug resistance in breast cancer. By targeting these abnormal blood vessels, we could enhance the potency of existing treatments, providing a more effective strategy to combat this devastating disease and ultimately improving patient survival.”

The implications of this study are far-reaching for breast cancer treatment. By incorporating anti-angiogenic therapies, clinicians may not only improve the effectiveness of existing drugs but also tailor treatments more precisely to the individual patient. This personalized approach could help reduce drug resistance, leading to improved survival rates and a better quality of life for breast cancer patients worldwide.

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References

DOI

10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2023.0515

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2023.0515

Funding information

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81973861), Zhejiang Provincial Ministry Medical and Health Co-construction Major Project (Grant No. 20214355173), Zhejiang Science and Technology Department “Vanguard” “Leading Goose” research (Grant No. 2023C03044), Zhejiang Provincial Health “Leading Talents” Project, and Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Project (Grant No. 2022KY558).

About Cancer Biology & Medicine 

Cancer Biology & Medicine (CBM) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal sponsored by China Anti-cancer Association (CACA) and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital. The journal monthly provides innovative and significant information on biological basis of cancer, cancer microenvironment, translational cancer research, and all aspects of clinical cancer research. The journal also publishes significant perspectives on indigenous cancer types in China. The journal is indexed in SCOPUS, MEDLINE and SCI (IF 5.6, 5-year IF 5.9), with all full texts freely visible to clinicians and researchers all over the world (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/2000/).