Figure 1.

Normal vasculature and cancer vasculature. Whereas normal vasculature exhibits predictable branching patterns and well-defined arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules and veins [17], cancer vasculature exhibits chaotic formation of a wide variety of blood vessels that are leaky, tortuous and poorly perfused [11–13, 17, 28–30]. Examples of cancer-specific blood vessels include: Mother Vessels – large, tortuous, leaky vessels; Vascular Malformations – Poorly perfused, abnormally large vessels coated with smooth muscle cells; Glomeruloid Microvascular Prolierations – disorganized, hyperproliferative and hyperperfused vessels; Transluminal Bridges – capillary vessels that penetrate and travel through larger blood vessels; Feeder arteries and Draining veins – tortuous, abnormally large vessels larger than vascular malformations [17].