Results from a new study have made it easier for scientists to distinguish between growing blood vessels in healthy tissues and those that are associated with tumors.
This is a significant finding because this distinction, particularly at a molecular level, has remained elusive for quite some time. The research, released in the June issue of the journal Cancer Cell, published by Cell Press, has exciting implications for development of more selective vascular-targeted anticancer therapeutics.
A major strategy for destroying cancer cells has been to disrupt the growing blood vessels that support tumor growth. However, current vascular-targeted therapies may also damage normal growing blood vessels. This is a concern because the formation of new blood vessels, or angiogenesis, continues to occur in adults, for example, during pregnancy, menstruation, and wound healing. Dr. Brad St. Croix and colleagues from the National Cancer Institute at Frederick executed a series of studies aimed at identifying markers that can be used to distinguish between proliferating blood vessels in normal and diseased tissues.