A group of American researchers from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and Italian researchers from the European Institute of Oncology have discovered a method that could allow us to understand whether an anti-angiogenesis drug has actually "starved" a patient's cancer to the point of destruction. So if it worked. The researchers saw that if anti-angiogenesis works, the number of endothelial cells circulating in the bloodstream decreases, thus providing a potential biomarker that measures the effectiveness of the drug.
Previous studies had shown that in the bloodstream of cancer patients there is an abnormal circulation of endothelial cells that help build blood vessels, including those useful for tumor growth. The research was carried out on four groups of mice in which an immunodeficiency had been induced and therefore cells from the human prostate tumor had been implanted into them. Each group received a different treatment. Only in the mice that had received the anti-angiogenesis drug was there a clear breakdown of epithelial cells. The results of the new research were presented at the First International Meeting on Molecular Diagnostics in the Development of Cancer Therapies, organized by the American Association for Cancer Research. (AGI)
18 SEP 2006 AGI HEALTHCARE
Previous studies had shown that in the bloodstream of cancer patients there is an abnormal circulation of endothelial cells that help build blood vessels, including those useful for tumor growth. The research was carried out on four groups of mice in which an immunodeficiency had been induced and therefore cells from the human prostate tumor had been implanted into them. Each group received a different treatment. Only in the mice that had received the anti-angiogenesis drug was there a clear breakdown of epithelial cells. The results of the new research were presented at the First International Meeting on Molecular Diagnostics in the Development of Cancer Therapies, organized by the American Association for Cancer Research. (AGI)
18 SEP 2006 AGI HEALTHCARE
