Biotech Values

[DewDiligence]

Anti-angiogenesis as a cancer prophylactic?

[Given the dubious safety data for Avastin in colorectal and lung cancers (#msg-2484393), using an anti-angiogenesis drug as a cancer prophylactic might seem to be far-fetched. Yet that is exactly what Judah Folkman and colleagues are studying at Boston’s Children’s Hospital according to this excerpt from a recent article in the Boston Globe.]

http://tinyurl.com/37h25

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…Folkman and his colleagues at Children's Hospital are investigating whether angiogenesis inhibitors, given to healthy people at risk of cancer, could prevent the disease. The work, still very preliminary, is based on autopsies of trauma victims showing that most people carry miniscule tumors and on Folkman's hypothesis that "we are protected by an orchestra of natural angiogenesis inhibitors that work together to keep tumors from growing." He says there is evidence of this effect in people with Down syndrome, who rarely get solid tumors and who have high levels of endostatin, a natural angiogenesis inhibitor identified in Folkman's lab.

Folkman is investigating if it is possible to keep levels of the inhibitors high enough to prevent the small tumors from ever growing into cancer. In mice, he said, studies show that drugs such as the painkiller Celebrex and the antibiotic doxycycline raise the level of natural angiogenesis inhibitors.

"The drugs we're going to use are already in us," he said. "We're simply going to raise them a bit."

"Our major thrust," he added, is: "Could we ever get to a point where we could treat cancer before even seeing it?"
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