Abstract
Recent progress in the molecular and biological understanding of the VEGF pathway provides us with novel and promising therapeutic strategies and targets for overcoming cancer. VEGF plays an important role in tumor growth and metastasis. It is recognized as an essential regulator of normal and abnormal blood vessel growth. Therapies designed to target VEGF have been in development for the past few years and as a result VEGF inhibitors are now available as standard therapy or as part of clinical trials. Bevacizumab was the first anti-VEGF therapy and was approved for use in metastatic colorectal cancer after showing significant improvement of survival. Recent trials with several VEGF inhibitors in breast, non-small cell lung, ovarian, kidney cancers and melanoma have shown very encouraging results. This review will discuss the role of VEGF in angiogenesis and malignancy, VEGF inhibitors, and the recent clinical trials of their use in different tumors.