Gerard A Rongen,
Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands
Title: Cardiovascular effects of angiogenesis inhibitors
Biography
Biography: Gerard A Rongen,
Abstract
The introduction of angiogenesis inhibitors such as Bevacizumab and Sunitinib have revolutionalized the therapy of various metastatic cancers including renal cell, pancreatic and lung cancer. Although refered to as ‘targeted therapy’, these drugs have important side effects, in particular hypertension (over 50% of patients), heart failure and renal impairment. Better knowledge on the mechanism of these adverse cardiovascular effects provides us opportunities to increase our knowledge of the role of angiogenetic factors (in particular VEGF) in (patho)physiology of the cardiovascular system and may highlight new therapeutic options to prevent or treat these adverse events in patients with cancer. This keynote lecture will address recent own research in the context of international literature. In particular, the role of endogenous VEGF in regulation of vascular tone and the role of the endothelial vasorelaxing factors, Renin Angiotensin Aldosteron System and endothelin in the mechanism of Sunitinib-induced hypertension will be discussed. Data on (lack of) direct acute cardiotoxicity of sunitinib will be presented. Finally, the potential impact of a hypothesis-generating observation on the impact of sunitinib on insulin clearance will be discussed.