Overview

In a 1971 article published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Judah Folkman proposed that preventing new capillary formation could be a viable strategy for preventing and treating cancer. Today, eight anti-angiogenesis cancer therapies are on the market, and over 120 new anti-angiogenesis compounds are in various stages of preclinical study.

A May 26, 2009, full-day meeting of the Academy's Biochemical Pharmacology Discussion Group drew key researchers in the field to discuss the emerging understanding of angiogenesis, how anti-angiogenesis therapies fight cancer, and recent findings on how to improve these revolutionary therapeutics. Among the topics discussed were how normalizing vascularization with anti-angiogenic agents can benefit patients with some tumor types; how blocking vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) can promote tumor growth; ways in which VEGF inhibitors can serve as research tools, in addition to therapeutics; intersections between VEGF and the Notch signaling pathway that offer new targets for therapeutic intervention; other pro-angiogenic factors that could be targeted in addition to VEGF; and why boosting production of production of an endogenous, anti-angiogenic splice variant of VEGF could help diminish tumor cells.

Sample Media

Video Interview
Anti-Angiogenic Cancer Research

William Li, president of the Angiogenesis Foundation, provides an overview of the accomplishments and future of anti-antiogenic research against cancer.

Use the tabs above to view a meeting report and multimedia from the event.

Speakers discussed:

William Li (The Angiogenesis Foundation) *
Rakesh Jain (Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School)
Robert Kerbel (University of Toronto) *
Stuart Peltz (PTC Therapeutics)
David Bates (Bristol Heart Institute)
George Yancopoulos (Regeneron Pharmaceuticals) *
Jan Kitajewski (Columbia University Medical Center) *
Gabriele Bergers (University of California, San Francisco) *
Richard Kendall (Amgen)

* slides and audio available