Volume 136, Issue 11 pp. 2504-2514
Mini Review

Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1)—An increasing insight into its role in tumorigenicity and metastasis

Martin Schlesinger

Corresponding Author

Martin Schlesinger

Department of Pharmacy, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, 53121 Bonn, Germany

Correspondence to: Dr. Martin Schlesinger, Department of Pharmacy, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, An der Immenburg 4, 53121 Bonn, Germany, Tel.: +49-228-735238, Fax: +49-228-734692, E-mail: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Gerd Bendas

Gerd Bendas

Department of Pharmacy, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-University Bonn, 53121 Bonn, Germany

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First published: 26 April 2014
Citations: 179

Abstract

Vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 (VCAM-1) first attracted attention more than two decades ago as endothelial adhesion receptor with key function for leukocyte recruitment in term of cellular immune response. The early finding of VCAM-1 binding to melanoma cells, and thus a suggested mechanistic contribution to metastatic spread, was the first and for a long time the only link of VCAM-1 to cancer sciences. In the last few years, hallmarked by a growing insight into the molecular understanding of tumorigenicity and metastasis, an impressive variety of VCAM-1 functionalities in cancer have been elucidated. The present review aims to provide a current overview of VCAM-1 relevance for tumor growth, metastasis, angiogenesis, and related processes. By illustrating the intriguing role of VCAM-1 in cancer disease, VCAM-1 is suggested as a new and up to now underestimated target in cancer treatment and in clinical diagnosis of malignancies.

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