Abstract
The expression patterns of Plexin D1 in endothelial cells during developmental angiogenesis and in the vascular coating of specific tumors empahsize this protein as a potentially powerful tool as a diagnostic tumour biomarker in different types of cancer. Various tumour samples (n = 31) (11 brain, 8 breast, 12 thyroid) were compared to 33 control samples for the expression of Plexin D1 using immunohistochemical analysis. Plexin D1 was detected in most of the endothelial cells of the various cancer samples [brain cancer (63.6%), breast cancer (66.7%) and thyroid cancer (75%)], yet no expression could be detected in endothelial cells of normal tissues. Our results verify the role of Plexin D1 in brain, breast and thyroid cancer associated angiogenesis. Regarding the implications of Plexin D1 and its associations with cancer angiogenesis it might be a potential cancer biomarker providing that further studies confirm the present preliminary findings.