title: Circulating endothelial cells and circulating endothelial progenitors.
abstract: The roles of circulating endothelial cells (CECs) and circulating endothelial progenitors (CEPs) are currently being investigated in several diseases including cancer and metastases development. Preclinical and clinical data suggest that CEC enumeration might be useful to identify patients who might benefit from anti-angiogenic treatments while CEPs seem to have a "catalytic" role in different steps of cancer progression and recurrence after therapy. The definition of CEC and CEP phenotypes and the standardization of CEC and CEP enumeration procedures are highly warranted to use these cells as biomarkers in clinical trials in oncology, and to compare results from different studies.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Hematology-Oncology, European Institute of Oncology, via Ripamonti 435, 20141, Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: Patrizia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mancuso
authors.forename: Angelica
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calleri
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bertolini
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis / Q000473:pathology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology*; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic / Q000473:pathology*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*