TUMOR MICROCIRCULATION AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE IN THERAPY - POSSIBLE ROLE OF OMEGA-3-FATTY-ACIDS AS RHEOLOGICAL MODIFIERS

Despite the great efforts to find new drugs or devices to suppress can cer cells, attempts to modify microcirculation and therefore the state of tumor cells and their surrounding normal tissues have not been giv en the attention they deserve. Solid tumors are composed of highly het erogeneous populations of malignant, stromal and inflammatory cells in a continuously adapting extracellular matrix. All of the above compon ents interact and regulate each other to produce distinct microenviron ments within the tumor mass. Abnormal microcirculation plays a particu lar role in the maintenance of this anomalous condition and favors the formation of metastasis, but on the other hand provides the therapist with an important site for intervention. In this brief overview we at tempt to outline three aspects: (a) how the anomalous tumor blood flow provokes the nonuniform distribution of oxygen and nutrients within t he tumor mass, thus determining different responses to the various can cer therapies; (b) how hemorheology is the clinical parameter most eas ily modified and (c) how omega-3 essential fatty acids are natural dru gs that could be used in this sense beyond their antitumoral propertie s.