VEGF in Signaling and Disease: Beyond Discovery and Development.
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative review / mechanism-based reasoning without systematic search criteria or primary data
PubMed 30849371 · doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.01.021
What was done
Narrative review summarizing the molecular mechanisms of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) signaling, its physiological roles in vasculogenesis, angiogenesis, and neurovascular homeostasis, and the development of direct and indirect VEGF-targeted therapies across oncology and ophthalmology.
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative results, statistical data, or effect sizes. It qualitatively describes the central role of VEGF in cancer pathogenesis and blinding ocular diseases, along with emerging strategies such as combining VEGF blockade with cancer immunotherapy and multitarget approaches in neovascular eye disease.
Why it matters
Synthesizes two decades of foundational and translational research demonstrating how mapping VEGF signaling pathways enabled the development of targeted therapies for vascular and malignant diseases.
Limits
As a broad narrative review, the paper provides qualitative synthesis rather than primary experimental data or systematic meta-analytic evaluation. The abstract lacks quantitative endpoints, methodological search criteria, and formal risk-of-bias assessment.
Cited by
- supports Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is a growth factor that stimulates angiogenesis and blood vessel formation in tissue.