Abstract

Many solid tumours show an increased interstitial fluid pressure (IFP), which forms a barrier to transcapillary transport. This barrier is an obstacle in tumour treatment, as it results in inefficient uptake of therapeutic agents. There are a number of factors that contribute to increased IFP in the tumour, such as vessel abnormalities, fibrosis and contraction of the interstitial matrix. Lowering the tumour IFP with specific signal-transduction antagonists might be a useful approach to improving anticancer drug efficacy.

Author affiliations

1. Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research, Box 595, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.
2. Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, BMC, Box 582, SE-751 23 Uppsala, Sweden.
3. University of California, San Francisco, 513 Parnassus Avenue, HSW 1090-Box 0534, San Francisco, California 94143, USA.
4. Cancer Center Karolinska, R8:03, Department of Pathology-Oncology, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden.

Correspondence to: Carl-Henrik Heldin¹ Email: Heldin@licr.uu.se

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