Hypoxia-Inducible Factors: Master Regulators of Cancer Progression
Open accessAbstract
Intratumoral hypoxia (reduced O 2 availability) is a common finding in human cancer and leads to increased activity of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs), which regulate the expression of genes that contribute to angiogenesis, metabolic reprogramming, extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, motility, invasion, metastasis, cancer stem cell maintenance, immune evasion, and resistance to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Conventional anticancer therapies target well-oxygenated and proliferating cancer cells, whereas there are no approved therapies that target hypoxic cancer cells, despite growing clinical and experimental evidence indicating that intratumoral hypoxia is a critical microenvironmental factor driving cancer progression. In this review, our current understanding of the consequences of HIF activity and the translational potential of targeting HIFs for cancer therapy are discussed.
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Intratumoral hypoxia is a major driving force for cancer progression.
“Intratumoral hypoxia is a major driving force for cancer progression (15–19).”
From HIF inhibitor 32-134D eradicates murine hepatocellular carcinoma in combination with anti-PD1 therapy (2022) · cites this paper as [18]
HIFs play critical roles in cancer progression by activating transcription of genes encoding proteins involved in angiogenesis, glucose metabolism, invasion/metastasis, stem cell specification, protumoral inflammatory responses, and tumor immune evasion.
“Hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) play critical roles in cancer progression by activating the transcription of a large battery of genes encoding proteins that play key roles in angiogenesis, glucose metabolism, invasion/metastasis, stem cell specification, protumoral inflammatory responses, and tumor immune evasion (18, 23–27).”
From HIF inhibitor 32-134D eradicates murine hepatocellular carcinoma in combination with anti-PD1 therapy (2022) · cites this paper as [18]
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- Authors
- Schito, L., & Semenza, G. L.
- Affiliations
- University Health Network (CA)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Semenza, Gregg L.
- Venue
- Trends in Cancer
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2016-12
- Volume
- 2
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 758-770
- ISSN
- 2405-8025 (ISSN-L)
- 2405-8033
- OpenAlex
- W2552872119
- Cited by
- 962
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 49 · 2025: 79 · 2024: 99 · 2023: 94 · 2022: 160 · 2021: 172 · 2020: 146 · 2019: 82 · 2018: 68 · 2017: 12
- FWCI
- 4.96
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Trends in cancer (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- American Cancer Society
- Cindy Rosencrans Fund for Triple-Negative Breast Cancer
- Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Cancer Research › Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Angiogenesis and VEGF in Cancer
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Hematology › Erythropoietin and Anemia Treatment
- Keywords
- hypoxia-inducible factor, intratumoral hypoxia, tumor microenvironment, tumor progression, angiogenesis, metabolic reprogramming, extracellular matrix remodeling, epithelial-mesenchymal transition, metastasis, cancer stem cells, immune evasion, chemoresistance, radiotherapy resistance
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Humans, Neoplasms, Neovascularization, Pathologic, Neoplastic Stem Cells, Hypoxia-Inducible Factor 1, Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition
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