Diagnostic, Therapeutic and Prognostic Potential of Pigment Epithelium-Derived Factor in Cancer
Dass CR., Dass J.
Narrative Review, published in Int J Mol Sci (2025) — summary generated from the PubMed abstract.
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
- Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
- Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
- Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
- Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
- Emerging · Emerging topic under active research
This page is generated from the PubMed record. The Thai description is an automated summary of bibliographic fields and the abstract, not a full translation, and is not medical advice.
- Study type
- Narrative Review
- Journal
- Int J Mol Sci (2025)
- Reported sample size
- —
- Source database
- Europe PMC
- PMID
- 40649783
- PMCID
- PMC12250505
- DOI
- 10.3390/ijms26136004
Abstract (original English)
This review highlights recent findings on the versatile serpin protein, pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF), in relation to cancer diagnosis, treatment and prognosis. PEDF was initially discovered in the eye but has since been reported to be relevant to various biological roles in the body, and when awry, to clinically lead to various disease states such as neoplasia. At the preclinical stage, potent effects have been reported in studies focussing on apoptosis, metastasis, oxidative stress, immune stimulation and metabolism. Apart from full-length proteins, short peptides based on PEDF have shown promise against cancer. For diagnosis and prognosis, PEDF levels in tumour specimens or in circulation have the potential to serve as biomarkers, most probably in combination with other biomarkers of cancer initiation and progression. Lastly, this review discusses the growing list of studies that point out the perceived pro-cancerous effects of PEDF, though this is clearly outweighed by the anticancer publications. Thus, this review provides a comprehensive and balanced listing of the oncological studies associated with this protein to date, drawing conclusions on whether this potent antiangiogenic protein and its peptides can be used in the future for better cancer treatment, especially against metastasis.
What this study does not prove
- • This study does not prove SVF is an approved treatment or a replacement for standard care.
- • This is a narrative review: it collects no new patient data and does not systematically appraise evidence quality.
Evidence level
Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.
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