title: Tumor endothelial markers as a target in cancer.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Several anti-angiogenic agents have been developed and some of them have been clinically applied in the tumor therapy. Anti-angiogenic therapy faces some hurdles: inherent or acquired resistance, increased invasiveness, and lack of biomarkers. Characterization of tumor endothelial markers may help to target endothelium and to identify potential predictive factors of response to anti-angiogenic therapies. Numerous surrogates, angiogenic and endothelium markers have emerged from recent pre-clinical studies, including physiological and soluble molecules in plasma and from platelets, circulating cells, tumor tissue factors and imaging markers. However, no wholly validated biomarkers currently exist to predict the success or the failure of the anti-angiogenic therapy of cancer. Therefore, the research of suitable and validate biomarkers is currently ongoing.
  
  
  METHODS
  This review provides an overview of the status of our knowledge concerning tumor endothelial markers, therapeutics targeting, possible resistance mechanisms and predictive value of these biomarkers and discuss future strategies to use and identify them in the anti-angiogenic therapy.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Anti-angiogenesis is a milestone to improve the treatment of several types of cancer and predictive biomarkers for a response to anti-endothelium therapy are one of the most important challenges for anti-angiogenesis research.
authors.affiliation: University of Bari Medical School, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Section of Human Anatomy and Histology, Piazza Giulio Cesare, 11, Bari, Italy. domenico.ribatti@uniba.it
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ribatti
authors.forename: Girolamo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ranieri
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Basile
authors.forename: Amalia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Azzariti
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Paradiso
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vacca
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000494:pharmacology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D000069287:Capecitabine; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules / Q000378:metabolism; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D042783:Endothelial Cells / Q000378:metabolism*; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000378:metabolism; D017978:Receptors, Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D013939:Thymidine Phosphorylase / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D015815:Cell Adhesion Molecules; D036341:Intercellular Signaling Peptides and Proteins; D017978:Receptors, Growth Factor; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000069287:Capecitabine; D013939:Thymidine Phosphorylase; D005472:Fluorouracil