Department of Surgery
Anna Spiegel Center of Translational Research
General Hospital AKH 25.05.002, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Phone: +43 (0)1 40400 - 73514
E-Mail: christine.brostjan@meduniwien.ac.at
Homepage: http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/hp/chirurgie/research-laboratories-forschung/groups/brostjan/
Tumor growth and metastasis are supported by the formation of new blood vessels. In the past decades, essential mediators and mechanisms of tumor angiogenesis have been unraveled. Correspondingly, therapeutic agents have been developed to control cancer expansion by inhibiting blood vessel growth. In this context, our research team is focused on
a) basic aspects of endothelial cell activation by cancer signals to characterize regulatory mechanisms and identify novel therapeutic targets of tumor angiogenesis
b) clinical parameters of tumor angiogenesis which reflect the prognosis of cancer patients and their response to anti-angiogenic and conventional cancer therapy.
Thus, the know-how of our research team centers around regulators of tumor angiogenesis such as thrombospondin-1, vascular endothelial growth factor, circulating endothelial cells and pro-angiogenic, inflammatory monocyte populations.
Regulators of tumor angiogenesis and clinical parameters of anti-angiogenic cancer therapy
Techniques and infrastructure of the research group
The applied methods comprise primary endothelial cell and standard cell culture including cell transfection and transduction techniques. Furthermore, state-of-the art molecular biology methods to characterize the expression of RNA and protein (quantitative RT-PCR, immunoblotting, confocal microscopy etc.) are established in the team. Blood and tissue samples of cancer patients are generally analyzed by flow cytometry, ELISA and immunohistochemistry.
Starlinger P, Alidzanovic L, Schauer D, Maier T, Nemeth C, Perisanidis B, Tamandl D, Gruenberger B, Gruenberger T, Brostjan C (2012a) Neoadjuvant bevacizumab persistently inactivates VEGF at the time of surgery despite preoperative cessation. British journal of cancer 107: 961-966
Schauer D, Starlinger P, Reiter C, Jahn N, Zajc P, Buchberger E, Bachleitner-Hofmann T, Bergmann M, Stift A, Gruenberger T, Brostjan C (2012) Intermediate monocytes but not TIE2-expressing monocytes are a sensitive diagnostic indicator for colorectal cancer. PloS one 7: e44450
Starlinger P, Brugger P, Reiter C, Schauer D, Sommerfeldt S, Tamandl D, Kuehrer I, Schoppmann SF, Gnant M, Brostjan C (2011a) Discrimination between circulating endothelial cells and blood cell populations with overlapping phenotype reveals distinct regulation and predictive potential in cancer therapy. Neoplasia 13: 980-990