Detecting vascular normalization in epithelial ovarian cancer
Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is highly angiogenic, making this tumor attractive, in the last 20 years, for analysis of clinical and biological functions of the VEGF family, relating altered expression with patient's clinical responses. Currently, analyzes and validations have yet to be made to relate vascular normalization with combinations of immune-, chemo- or radiotherapy. We review the main clinical analyses capable of identifying markers of vascular normalization including functional biomarkers (e.g., perfusion parameters by imaging techniques), molecular biomarkers (e.g., circulating protein levels and cfDNA), blood biomarkers, physiological markers and other approaches. Many markers cited here have not yet been analyzed in EOC but have shown promising results in tumors such as pancreatic and glioblastoma cancer, which share similarities with ovarian cancer. The methodologies presented have the advantage of not being invasive and immediately detecting vascular normalization, mainly using imaging techniques.