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Tumors don't just rely on their host's blood vessels for nourishment--they can make their own vasculature, according to two independent studies from the United States and Italy. The findings offer an explanation for why a class of drug once heralded as a game-changer in cancer treatment is proving less effective than had been hoped.
Tumors grow their own blood vessels Finding explains failure of drugs that target host vasculature
Seeded on Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:01 PM EST
Article Source: Science News, Articles and Information | Scientific American- Enjoy this article? Help vote it up the 'Vine.
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In the second study, Ruggero De Maria from the Italian National Institute of Health in Rome and his colleagues selectively killed the tumor-related blood-vessel cells. This caused the tumors to shrink, showing their reliance on those blood vessels. However, the number of tumor-derived blood-vessel cells in each tumor sample varied from 20 percent to 90 percent, suggesting that blood-vessel formation was more important for some tumor cells than others.
- 2 votes
#1 - Mon Nov 22, 2010 5:03 PM ESTPar4,
Most fascinating. Seems like this is a critical discovery, and should have researchers scrambling for tumor-specific vascular markers that can be targeted by drugs very quickly.
I may be overly optimistic here, but this might just be a major breakthrough. Shutting down a tumor's blood supply without damaging the surrounding tissue is the holy grail of cancer research.
Thanks for the seed.
- 2 votes
You are like totally welcome Physicist.. ;)
As a lay person.. this is a great barrier if true that could be coming down for the fight against cancer..
- 2 votes
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