Anti-Angiogenic Therapy Under Study For Metastatic Disease.(metastatic breast cancer)

2001 APR 26 - (NewsRx Network) -- Breast cancer researchers at Rush-Presbyterian-St.Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, have begun testing a new therapy that targets the blood vessels that feed breast cancer tumors.

This new anti-angiogenic therapy, called rhuMAb VEGF (recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody to vascular endothelial growth factor) seeks to block cancer's ability to form new blood vessels that feed the tumor.

Anti-angiogenic therapy is a relatively new form of cancer treatment using drugs called angiogenesis inhibitors that specifically halt new blood vessel growth and starve a tumor by cutting off its blood supply.

"If a tumor develops but has no blood supply, it will typically only grow to the size of a small pea," said principle investigator Dr. Melody Cobleigh, director of the Comprehensive Breast Center at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center.

If the tumor is not detected and treated, however, eventually a few cancer cells gain the ability to produce proteins known as angiogenic growth factors. These growth factors are released by the tumor into nearby tissues and they stimulate new blood vessels to sprout from existing healthy blood vessels, into the tumor. The tumor is then able to expand in size rapidly.

Patients enrolled in the trial at Rush will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment ...