Arterial hypertension, main side effect of anti-angiogenic drugs and possible early marker of efficiency

Anti-angiogenic drugs were introduced in oncology for less than 10 years and have become essential in combination with conventional chemotherapy. Vascular and cardiac side effects are the most frequent, at the forefront of which include high blood pressure which, according to studies, has an incidence of 10 to 40%. In the vast majority of cases, hypertension is not severe and remains easy to treat. However, reported cases thankfully rare but not exceptional of leuco-encephalopathy are associated with episodes of malignant hypertension; reversible on discontinuation of treatment. The pathophysiology of this high blood pressure secondary to anti-angiogenic therapy is discussed and proposed by many authors, as a simple early marker of the efficiency of the anti-angiogenic treatment.