Dr. Emily Bergsland, an oncologist at the UCSF Comprehensive Cancer Center, presented the research results at the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology on May 21. It works by prohibiting the protein VEGF from activating endothelial cell growth.
Endothelial cells make new blood vessels in a process called angiogenesis.
Solid tumors cannot grow beyond the size of a pinhead without inducing the formation of new blood vessels to supply the nutritional needs of the tumor, according the National Cancer Institute. These results are preliminary and need to be validated in larger clinical trials, but they do lend support to the idea that angiogenesis plays a critical role during tumor progression and represents a fundamentally new target for cancer treatment. The Phase II trial involved 104 patients who were previously untreated for metastatic colon cancer. Metastasis is when the disease spreads to other organs in the body. Patients with metastatic colon cancer have a median survival rate of one year and their treatment options are fairly limited, Bergsland said.