Angiogenesis Drugs may Help Treat Several Metastatic Cancers

by Bidita Debnath on November 20, 2016 at 11:53 PM

Drugs that target vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) -- a key driver of angiogenesis -- are now approved for the treatment of several metastatic cancers.

Blood vessel growth, or angiogenesis, is critical for cancer to grow and spread throughout the body. However, not all patients respond and many more eventually become resistant after initial treatment benefits.

Possible Mechanism for Resistance to Antiangiogenesis Therapy Identified

A new and promising mechanism behind the resistance that inevitably develops to cancer treatment with a combination of chemotherapy and antiangiogenic drugs has been identified.

‘Blood vessel growth, or angiogenesis, is critical for cancer to grow and spread throughout the body. Drugs that target angiogenesis can prevent cancer progression.’

Tweet it Now

While researchers have sought to identify possible mechanisms to explain drug resistance the methods to study have proven complex. Preclinical studies seeking to identify reasons for antiangiogenic treatment failure have relied on animal models of cancer because the complex interaction between the tumor and the "normal" blood vessels that the treatment targets is difficult to reproduce in a petri dish. But the use of animal models can also increase the varience in results.

In a review published in the journal Current Drug Targets, researchers at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, examined this variability and found that the many mechanisms of resistance identified in laboratory models are based on inconsistent definitions of treatment failure. "Most studies involve only a few drugs and animal models that do not fully recapitulate clinically relevant metastatic disease," said Dr. John Ebos, Assistant Professor at the Departments of Cancer Genetics and Medicine at Roswell Park. "Many excellent studies have been performed; however, it is difficult to determine which are most applicable to patients."

Angiogenesis Factor May Promote Aging-Related Eye Conditions

Increased expression of the angiogenic factor VEGF-A promotes three common aging-related eye conditions - both versions of age-related macular degeneration and cataracts.

The literature considered in this new review highlights the challenges of studying resistance to inhibitors of tumor angiogenesis in preclinical models and the need to improve methodology to help qualify and quantify treatment failure to predict alternative strategies that will be of greatest benefit to patients.

Source: Eurekalert

Blood Pressure Drives the Opening of Small Capillaries During Angiogenesis

A team of researchers led by Prof. Holger Gerhardt of the MDC observed the process of angiogenesis for the first time.

<< New Insight into How Alzheimer's Disease Begins

Fourteen-Year-Old Girl Cryogenically Frozen After Death >>

Hope for New TB Treatment With Drugs to Block Angiogenesis

Tobin helped to develop the zebrafish as a model of Tuberculosis, and is now ready to use the system to study the blood vessels associated with granulomas.