Tumor microcirculation and its significance in therapy: possible role of omega-3 fatty acids as rheological modifiers

Despite the great efforts to find new drugs or devices to suppress cancer cells, attempts to modify microcirculation and therefore the state of tumor cells and their surrounding normal tissues have not been given the attention they deserve. Solid tumors are composed of highly heterogeneous populatio...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Medical hypotheses 1998-02, Vol.50 (2), p.175-182
Main Authors: Baronzio, G.F., Galante, F., Gramaglia, A., Barlocco, A., De Grandi, S., Freitas, I.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use
Biological and medical sciences
Cell Hypoxia - drug effects
Cell Hypoxia - physiology
Cell Hypoxia - radiation effects
Fatty Acids, Omega-3 - therapeutic use
General and cellular metabolism. Vitamins
Humans
Hyperthermia, Induced
Immunotherapy
Medical sciences
Microcirculation - drug effects
Microcirculation - pathology
Microcirculation - physiopathology
Models, Biological
Neoplasms - blood supply
Neoplasms - drug therapy
Neoplasms - therapy
Pharmacology. Drug treatments
Photochemotherapy
Radiation Tolerance
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Summary:Despite the great efforts to find new drugs or devices to suppress cancer cells, attempts to modify microcirculation and therefore the state of tumor cells and their surrounding normal tissues have not been given the attention they deserve. Solid tumors are composed of highly heterogeneous populations of malignant, stromal and inflammatory cells in a continuously adapting extracellular matrix. All of the above components interact and regulate each other to produce distinct microenvironments within the tumor mass. Abnormal microcirculation plays a particular role in the maintenance of this anomalous condition and favors the formation of metastasis, but on the other hand provides the therapist with an important site for intervention. In this brief overview we attempt to outline three aspects: (a) how the anomalous tumor blood flow provokes the nonuniform distribution of oxygen and nutrients within the tumor mass, thus determining different responses to the various cancer therapies; (b) how hemorheology is the clinical parameter most easily modified and (c) how omega-3 essential fatty acids are natural drugs that could be used in this sense beyond their antitumoral properties.
ISSN:0306-9877
1532-2777
DOI:10.1016/S0306-9877(98)90204-3