# Hallmark: inducing or accessing vasculature

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/inducing-angiogenesis/  
OnCo record `inducing-angiogenesis` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Tumours grow their own blood supply, or co-opt existing vessels, to get oxygen and nutrients.

## Summary

Inducing or accessing vasculature is the hallmark by which tumours grow their own blood supply, or co-opt existing vessels, to obtain oxygen and nutrients. The mechanisms are VEGF-driven sprouting angiogenesis, vessel co-option and vasculogenic mimicry, described in the VEGF angiogenesis and VHL / HIF oxygen sensing pathways, with VEGF / VEGFR and HIF-2α as the linked targets. Anti-angiogenic therapy modestly extends survival on its own and enables immunotherapy by normalising vessels, while HIF-2α inhibition acts upstream in VHL-deficient renal cell carcinoma. Readers meet this hallmark from the Hallmarks of Cancer overview and the 2000 hallmarks paper, from the Angiogenesis entry and the angiogenic switch pathway, and from the Judah Folkman biography.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Tags: hallmark

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hallmarks_of_Cancer
- Hanahan, Hallmarks of Cancer: New Dimensions (Cancer Discovery 2022): https://doi.org/10.1158/2159-8290.CD-21-1059

## Connected records

- technologies: [Anti-angiogenic therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/antiangiogenic/)
- targets: [COX-2 (PTGS2)](https://onco.cc/targets/cox2/), [HIF-2α](https://onco.cc/targets/hif2a/), [VEGF / VEGFR](https://onco.cc/targets/vegf/)
- pathways: [The angiogenic switch & tumour vessels](https://onco.cc/pathways/angiogenic-switch/), [VEGF angiogenesis](https://onco.cc/pathways/vegf-angiogenesis/), [VHL / HIF oxygen sensing](https://onco.cc/pathways/hif-vhl/)
- people: [Judah Folkman](https://onco.cc/people/judah-folkman/)
- terms: [Angiogenesis](https://onco.cc/terms/angiogenesis/), [Hallmarks of Cancer](https://onco.cc/terms/hallmarks-of-cancer/), [Hallmarks of cancer as a synthesis of the theories](https://onco.cc/terms/hallmarks-synthesis/)
- key papers: [The Hallmarks of Cancer: six capabilities every tumour must acquire](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-hallmarks-of-cancer-cell-2000/)

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