Hypoxia-shaped vascular niche for cancer stem cells.

The tumour microenvironment, long considered as determining cancer development, still offers research fields to define hallmarks of cancer. An early key-step, the “angiogenic switch”, allows tumour growth. Pathologic angiogenesis is a cancer hallmark as it features results of tumour-specific properties that can be summarised as a response to hypoxia. The hypoxic state occurs when the tumour mass reaches a volume sufficient not to permit oxygen diffusion inside the tumour centre. Thus tumour cells turn on adaptation mechanisms to the low pO2 level, inducing biochemical responses in terms of cytokines/chemokines/receptors and consequently recruitment of specific cell types, as well as cell-selection inside the tumour. Moreover, these changes are orchestrated by the microRNA balance strongly reflecting the hypoxic milieu and mediating the cross-talk between endothelial and tumour cells. MicroRNAs control of the endothelial precursor-vascular settings shapes the niche for selection of cancer stem cells.