Therefore, we hypothesized that functional VEGF receptors may also be expressed in malignant counterparts of hematopoietic stem cells such as leukemias.
This review aims to summarize recent advances in understanding the role of VEGF and angiogenesis in leukemias, mainly focusing on their upstream transcriptors, downstream targets and the correlation of VEGF/VEGFR with the treatment, relapse or prognosis of leukemia.
We have recently shown that rapamycin down-regulates expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a mediator of leukemia-associated angiogenesis, in primary CML cells.