blood vessel formation

(University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center) Thyroid cancer that has spread to distant sites has a poor prognosis, but an experimental drug that inhibits tumor blood vessel formation can slow disease progression in some patients, a research team led by investigators from The University of Texas M.

D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the July 3 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

It is widely believed that tumor angiogenesis and cancer growth critically depend on circulating endothelial precursor cells, mobilized from the bone marrow.

The recent study from researchers at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and Stanford University now suggests that a stem cell type supposed to be crucial for blood vessel formation and cancer growth does not actually exist.

In a recent University of Missouri study, researchers found that one of the hormones used in HRT could be a major factor in promoting breast cancer.

At the same time, the researchers have compelling evidence that using an antibody that prevents new blood vessel formation in tumors, or a small molecular drug, known as PRIMA, with similar properties as the antibody may be effective in treating or preventing the negative effects of progestin.

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have found a previously unknown molecular pathway in mice that spurs the growth of new blood vessels when body parts are jeopardized by poor circulation.

At present, their observation adds to the understanding of blood vessel formation. In the future, though, the researchers suggest it is possible that the pathway could be manipulated as a means of treating heart and blood vessel diseases and cancer.