Blood flow and oxygenation status of gastrointestinal tumors

Abstract

Tumor hypoxia is a major driving force for malignant progression since it can promote local invasion of cancer cells and metastatic spread to distant sites [1-7]. Tumor hypoxia also plays a key role in the development of acquired treatment resistance since it is capable of directly and/or indirectly conferring resistance to therapy [8, 9]. As a result, hypoxia has been shown to act as an independent, adverse prognostic factor [10-14]. Due to this seminal role of tumor hypoxia, knowledge concerning the oxygenation status of malignant tumors in terms of O2 tension distributions and detection of hypoxia are indispensable in the clinical setting. For this reason, the respective oxygenation status for gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies have been compiled in this review, together with blood flow values (where available), which are major determinants of the oxygen status. Pretherapeutic data of the following tumor entities will be presented: Cancers of the stomach, gallbladder, common bile duct, pancreas, colon, rectum, and primary and metastatic liver tumors. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.