Vascular mimicry in head and neck tumours

Abstract

Introduction: Angiogenesis has been extensively investigated in several tumour models; however, chemotherapeutic agents based upon these models have not been very effective. It is logical to assume this lack of efficacy is due to the host tumour interface. Furthermore it is a reasonable hypothesis that the transition between the host vasculature and tumour is not binomial but a gradual transition from tumour and mosaic vessels to host capillaries. The existence of such pure tumour and mosaic vessels would suggest the possibility of tumour vascular mimicry in the connecting vessels.