Platelets: Guardians of Tumor Vasculature

¹Immune Disease Institute and ²Department of Pathology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; and ³Inserm Unit 698, Bichat Hospital, Paris, France, and ⁴University of Münster, Department of Dermatology, Münster, Germany

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wagner{at}idi.harvard.edu.

	Abstract

Solid tumors generate a prothrombotic environment capable of platelet activation. Recent findings indicate that the activated platelets are crucial regulators of tumor vascular homeostasis in that they prevent tumor hemorrhage. Surprisingly, this effect is independent of platelets' capacity to form thrombi and instead relies on the secretion of their granule content. Thus, targeting platelet secretory activities may represent a new approach to specifically destabilize tumor vasculature. [Cancer Res 2009;69(14):5623–6]