A Benjamin Franklin Medal of The Franklin Institute, in the field of life science, is awarded to Judah Folkman for his founding of the field of angiogenesis research and demonstration that angiogenesis is a necessary factor in the conversion of abnormal cells to malignant tumors. Soon after medical school, Judah Folkman performed an experiment whose intriguing results suggested to him that for a tumor to become a cancerous growth, it must have an unlimited supply of new blood vessels. Thus was born the field of angiogenesis research in which Folkman, over many years, demonstrated that animals, including people, have naturally occurring substances which either promote or inhibit the formation of new blood vessels.
Cancers overproduce their own angiogenic agents.
Many natural angiogenesis inhibitors as well as synthetic ones are now undergoing testing in anti-cancer trials. Already, the field of angiogenesis research has transformed the way in which doctors diagnose and treat cancer. Angiogenesis and The Struggle to Defeat Cancer. By Robert Cooke, Random House 2001.