Yet with angiogenesis—either too much or too little—now thought
to contribute to as many as 60 disorders, including cancer, macular degeneration,
stroke and coronary artery disease, the journal Nature recently declared
that the $4 billion already invested in angiogenesis research and drug
development “will probably change the face of medicine in the next
decade, with more than 500 million people worldwide predicted to benefit.”
For antiangiogenesis to finally reach its potential
for managing cancer, says Folkman, it will take some time as physicians
become accustomed to the principles of antiangiogenic therapy, which differ
from those of conventional chemotherapy. This process, though, is bound
to be much shorter than the time it took for Folkman’s hunch about
tumors’ blood supply to enter the medical mainstream. “In
1971 there were only three research papers published on angiogenesis;
two were ours, and one was criticizing our work,” Folkman says. “Today
there are 25,000 papers with angiogenesis in the title, with about 70
new papers published each week.”
 Dossier
1. Dr. Folkman’s War: Angiogenesis and the
Struggle to Defeat Cancer, by Robert Cooke [Random
House, 2001]. A highly readable account of the
obstacles and skepticism Judah Folkman faced in
proving his theory.
2. “Normalization of Tumor Vasculature:
An Emerging Concept in Antiangiogenic Therapy,” by
Rakesh K. Jain, Science, vol. 307, Jan. 7, 2005.
Beautifully illustrated article on the response
of tumors to antiangiogenic therapy.
3. “Insight: Angiogenesis,” Nature
[http://www.nature.com/nature/supplements/insights/angiogenesis/index.html].
Special supplement on the role of angiogenesis in disease and medicine.
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