Role of Anti Angiogenic Therapy in Prevention of Recurrence in Hormonal Positive Breast Cancer: A Secondary Prevention Strategy and Method of Therapy

Abstract

Existing literature supports the role of signaling protein vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in tumor growth and metastasis and furthers its involvement in recurrence. In both experimental and clinical studies, VEGF has been shown to be a significant factor involved for aberrant blood vessel growth, and in fact is the target of several classes of antineoplastic drugs [1] [2] [3] [4]. That said, the current standard of care for estrogen receptor positive breast cancer (although improved over the last decade), has not provided a “meaningful preventive shift” since the discovery of angiogenesis and its role in induction of recurrence. In this article, we discuss an anti angiogenic therapy implementing natural compounds to inhibit the production of VEGF. We applied our preclinical data to justify the predicted effect on VEGF. We used liquid biopsy to monitor patients response to therapy as a surrogate for recurrence. We hypothesize that by inhibition of angiogenesis through this protocol, we are able to positively impact tumor recurrence. It is our experience that patients in our sample even with high recurrence scores (based on Oncotype Dx testing) had a major reduction in recurrence when estrogen blockers were combined with this protocol. We also propose longitudinal studies to compare outcomes with combinational therapies with estrogen blockers in highly expected to recur disease.