Angioprevention is the concept of preventing disease development or progression through the inhibition of angiogenesis, the process of forming

blood vessel The blood vessels are the components of the circulatory system that transport blood throughout the human body. These vessels transport blood cells, nutrients, and oxygen to the tissues of the body. They also take waste and carbon dioxide away ...

s. The concept of angioprevention has been developed by

Adriana Albini Adriana Albini (born 1955) is an Italian pathologist and cancer researcher. She developed the concept of angioprevention which can be used to control cancer development. She is a competitive fencer and six of her novels have been published. In ...

and co-workers who showed that several drugs and natural compounds for

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

chemo-prevention (or

chemoprophylaxis Chemoprevention (also chemoprophylaxis) refers to the administration of a medication for the purpose of preventing disease or infection. Antibiotics, for example, may be administered to patients with disorders of immune system function to preven ...

) actually prevent tumor

formation. This concept has been furthered through the identification of many other "angiopreventive" compounds. Neo- angiogenesis is crucial during tumor growth and progression since it provides oxygen and nutrients to the cancer cells and blood vessels constitute the major route of tumor cell dissemination leading to the formation of

metastases Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then ...

. Inhibition of angiogenesis is expected to have major effects if started early during tumor development before metastatic cells have spread throughout the body. Dietary "angiopreventive" agents such as flavonoids or other

polyphenol Polyphenols () are a large family of naturally occurring organic compounds characterized by multiples of phenol units. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some o ...

s might therefore play an important role in cancer chemoprevention and retard or inhibit the growth and progression of cancers.

References

{{Reflist Angiology