An Overview on Oxygen Carriers in Cancer Therapy

Abstract

Solid tumors are aberrant tissues composed of stroma and malignant cells. Amongst the properties which distinguish normal tissues from solid tumors are physiological characteristics related to the disregulated proliferation of the neoplastic and normal cells that comprise the tumor mass. Although signals for vascular growth are present in solid tumors, the growth of blood vessels in tumors is irregular, and the vasculature is often poorly formed and inadequate lacking vasoresponsive elements. Thus, solid tumors often exhibit highly heterogeneous oxygen tension distributions, pH, glucose delivery and utilization, etc. [1-6]