Glioblastoma-Specific Strategies of Vascularization: Implications in Anti-Angiogenic Therapy Resistance

Abstract

Angiogenesis has long been implicated as a crucial process in GBM growth and progression. GBM can adopt several strategies to build up its abundant and aberrant vasculature. Targeting GBM angiogenesis has gained more and more attention in anti-cancer therapy, and many strategies have been developed to interfere with this hallmark. However, recent findings reveal that the effects of anti-angiogenic treatments are temporally limited and that tumors become refractory to therapy and more aggressive. In this review, we summarize the GBM-associated neovascularization processes and their implication in drug resistance mechanisms underlying the transient efficacy of current anti-angiogenic therapies. Moreover, we describe potential strategies and perspectives to overcome the mechanisms adopted by GBM to develop resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy as new potential therapeutic approaches.