Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1 in the Angiogenesis of Prostate Cancer

Lethal clones of prostate cancer express multiple genes involved in driving angiogenesis. A Google Scholar search of “angiogenesis and prostate cancer” yields over 1000 citations. Nevertheless, until recently the signaling pathways, critical epigenetic factors, and genetic alterations were not well defined for human prostate cancer angiogenesis. Hypoxia-inducible factor 1 (HIF-1) is an important transcription factor associated with the lethality of human prostate cancer and many other cancers (1). HIF-1 regulates multiple genes, including vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in angiogenesis (1–3). Furthermore, HIF-1 also appears to be involved in the overexpression of genes implicated in osseous metastasis (1). As the signaling pathways for HIF-1 have been identified, HIF-1 has become a candidate therapeutic target