tumor angiogenesis

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.

Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research may have found a new option for targeted breast cancer therapy by showing the link between a certain protein and the development of blood vessels that feed breast tumors.

The Burnham team developed the first living model to study the effect of the protein called T-cadherin on tumor angiogenesis by creating a strain of mice that develops spontaneous mammary gland tumors in the absence of T-cadherin.