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World J Gastrointest Oncol. Aug 15, 2022; 14(8): 1469-1477
Published online Aug 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i8.1469
Angiogenesis in gastrointestinal stromal tumors: From bench to bedside
Stavros P Papadakos, Christos Tsagkaris, Marios Papadakis, Andreas S Papazoglou, Dimitrios V Moysidis, Constantinos G Zografos, Stamatios Theocharis
Stavros P Papadakos, First Department of Pathology, School of Medicine, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens 10679, Greece
Christos Tsagkaris, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Heraklion 71003, Greece
Marios Papadakis, University Hospital Witten-Herdecke, University of Witten-Herdecke, Wuppertal 42283, Germany
Andreas S Papazoglou, Dimitrios V Moysidis, First Department of Cardiology, AHEPA University Hospital, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 54636, Greece
Constantinos G Zografos, First Department of Surgery, Athens Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Laikon General Hospital, Athens 11527, Greece
Stamatios Theocharis, First Department of Pathology, Medical School, University of Athens, Athens 11527, Greece
Author contributions: Papadakos SP and Tsagkaris C contributed equally; Papadakos SP and Tsagkaris C contributed to the onceptualization and study design; Papadakos SP wrote the first draft; Moysidis DV, Papazoglou AS, Papadakis M and Zografos CG wrote the second draft; Tsagkaris C, Papadakis M and Theocharis S contributed to the critical revision; Papadakis M and Theocharis S contributed to the supervision
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Christos Tsagkaris, MD, Academic Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, University of Crete, Voutes Camp, Andrea Kalokairinou, Heraklion 71003, Greece. chriss20x@gmail.com
Received: March 20, 2022
Peer-review started: March 20, 2022
First decision: April 25, 2022
Revised: May 15, 2022
Accepted: July 18, 2022
Article in press: July 18, 2022
Published online: August 15, 2022
Processing time: 142 Days and 14.1 Hours
Abstract

Gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs) are rare neoplasms with an estimated incidence from 0.78 to 1-1.5 patients per 100000. They most commonly occur in the elderly during the eighth decade of life affecting predominantly the stomach, but also the small intestine, the omentum, mesentery and rectosigmoid. The available treatments for GIST are associated with a significant rate of recurrent disease and adverse events. Thorough understanding of GIST’s pathophysiology and translation of this knowledge into novel regimens or drug repurposing is essential to counter this challenge. The present review summarizes the existing evidence about the role of angiogenesis in GIST’s development and progression and discusses its clinical underpinnings.

Keywords: Gastrointestinal stromal tumor; Cancer; Oncology; Angiogenesis; Gastrointestinal oncology; Stromal tumors

Core Tip: Thorough understanding of gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs)’s pathophysiology and translation of this knowledge into novel regimens or drug repurposing is essential to counter this challenge. The present review summarizes the existing evidence about the role of angiogenesis in GIST’s development and progression and discusses its clinical underpinnings.