The heterogeneity of cancer endothelium: The relevance of angiogenesis and endothelial progenitor cells in cancer microenvironment.

Tumor-associated vessels constitution is the result of angiogenesis, the hallmark of cancer essential for tumor to develop in dimension and to spread throughout the organism. Tumor endothelium is configured as an active functioning organ capable of determine interaction with the immune response and all the other components of the variegate cancer microenvironment, determining reciprocal influence. Angiogenesis is here analyzed in its molecular and cellular mechanisms, multiple mediators and principal players, represented by Endothelial Cells.

Blood and lymphatic vessels contribute to the impact of the immune microenvironment on clinical outcome in non-small-cell lung cancer.

Objectives: Lymphangiogenesis plays a critical role in the immune response, tumour progression and therapy effectiveness. The aim of this study was to determine whether the interplay between the lymphatic and the blood microvasculature, tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes and the programmed death 1 (PD-1)/programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) immune checkpoint constitutes an immune microenvironment affecting the clinical outcome of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer.

Methods: Samples from 50 squamous cell carcinomas and 42 adenocarcinomas were subjected to immunofluorescence to detect blood and lymphatic vessels.

Low PD-1 Expression in Cytotoxic CD8 Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes Confers an Immune-Privileged Tissue Microenvironment in NSCLC with a Prognostic and Predictive Value.

The success of immune checkpoint inhibitors strengthens the notion that tumor growth and regression are immune regulated. To determine whether distinct tissue immune microenvironments differentially affect clinical outcome in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), an extended analysis of PD-L1 and tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) was performed. Samples from resected adenocarcinoma (ADC 42), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC 58), and 26 advanced diseases (13 ADC and 13 SCC) treated with nivolumab were analyzed.