VEGF News and Research

RSS

VEGF is a substance made by cells that stimulates new blood vessel formation. Also called vascular endothelial growth factor.

Oraya Therapy safe and effective for patients with wet AMD

Oraya Therapeutics, Inc. today announced that one of the patients who successfully was treated for wet age-related macular degeneration (AMD) with Oraya Therapy during the INTREPID clinical trial has released data showing he has experienced significant, sustained vision improvement more than two years after treatment in his right eye, without any subsequent anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) injections or other treatment.

1 Mar 2013

Ampio Pharmaceuticals starts Optina clinical trial

Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced oral dosing of the first patient in a 505(b)(2) clinical trial of the investigational drug Optina in diabetic macular edema.

27 Feb 2013

UCSD molecular biologist to receive Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences

Napoleone Ferrara, MD, PhD, the molecular biologist credited with helping decipher how tumors grow and now senior deputy director for basic sciences at the University of California, San Diego Moores Cancer Center, was today named one of 11 recipients of the inaugural Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, which comes with a $3 million cash award.

21 Feb 2013

Consortium database model compares favorably for RCC prognosis

The International Metastatic Renal-Cell Carcinoma Database has been externally validated and is now ready for application, researchers report.

20 Feb 2013

COX-2 inhibitor extends sunitinib activity in renal cell carcinoma

The effectiveness of sunitinib for the treatment of renal cell carcinoma could be enhanced with the addition of a cyclooxygenase-2 inhibitor, study findings show.

20 Feb 2013

AMD risk alleles fail to predict treatment response

The major risk alleles that influence the development of age-related macular degeneration do not predict response to therapy for the condition, a substudy of the CATT trial indicates.

20 Feb 2013

CATT study clarifies value of genetic testing for age-related macular degeneration

New findings from a landmark clinical trial show that although certain gene variants may predict whether a person is likely to develop age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a potentially blinding eye disease that afflicts more than nine million Americans, these genes do not predict how patients will respond to Lucentis- and Avastin-, the two medications most widely used to treat the "wet" form of AMD.

13 Feb 2013

Tivozanib overall survival results announced by AVEO and Astellas

AVEO Oncology (NASDAQ: AVEO) and Astellas Pharma Inc. (TSE: 4503) announced overall survival (OS) for tivozanib, an investigational agent, from the Phase 3 TIVO-1 (TIvozanib Versus sOrafenib in 1st line advanced RCC) study in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). The final OS analysis, as specified by the protocol, shows a median OS of 28.8 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 22.5–NA) for tivozanib versus a median OS of 29.3 months (95% CI: 29.3–NA) for the comparator arm, sorafenib.

13 Feb 2013

RNAi effective in treating cancer patients

The new study published in Cancer Discovery, the flagship journal of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR), involving three Spanish and six American research centres, presents significant results in treating cancer patients with nanoparticles containing ribonucleic acid interference (RNAi) molecules.

13 Feb 2013

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) therapy: an interview with Charles A. Nicolette, Ph.D., CSO of Argos Therapeutics

Metastatic renal cell carcinoma is a devastating disease. There are roughly 20-25,000 new cases per year in the United States and it is increasing for some reason.

12 Feb 2013

Blood vessels play an important role in preventing spread of tumour cells

A lack of the protein endoglin in the blood vessels of tumour-bearing mice enables the spread of daughter tumours, according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden in a study published in the scientific periodical The Journal of Experimental Medicine. Given that the tumour vasculature constitutes an important barrier to the spread of cancer cells, the team suggests that drugs should be developed to strengthen the blood vessels' protective function.

12 Feb 2013

Positive results from NCI-sponsored bevacizumab trial on cervical cancer

Patients with advanced, recurrent, or persistent cervical cancer that was not curable with standard treatment who received the drug bevacizumab (Avastin) lived 3.7 months longer than patients who did not receive the drug, according to an interim analysis of a large, randomized clinical trial.

10 Feb 2013

Intravitreal ranibizumab shows little benefit after hemorrhage

Ranibizumab given intravitreally offers no clear benefit in the treatment of vitreous hemorrhage due to proliferative diabetic retinopathy, a randomized clinical trial indicates.

8 Feb 2013

Acceleron commences dalantercept phase 2 study in metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Acceleron Pharma, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company developing protein therapeutics for cancer and orphan diseases, announced the initiation of a phase 2 study of dalantercept, a novel angiogenesis inhibitor that targets the activin receptor-like kinase 1 (ALK1) pathway.

5 Feb 2013

Stem cells from bone marrow or fat improve recovery after stroke in rats

Stem cells from bone marrow or fat improve recovery after stroke in rats, finds a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy. Treatment with stem cells improved the amount of brain and nerve repair and the ability of the animals to complete behavioural tasks.

29 Jan 2013

Results from Amgen’s Neulasta plus bevacizumab Phase 3 trial on colorectal cancer

Amgen announced today results from Pegfilgrastim and Anti-VEGF Evaluation Study (PAVES), a Phase 3 trial which evaluated Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) in 845 patients receiving FOLFOX or FOLFIRI and bevacizumab for the first-line treatment of locally-advanced or metastatic colorectal cancer.

28 Jan 2013

Genentech receives FDA approval for new use of Avastin plus chemotherapy to treat mCRC

Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new use of Avastin (bevacizumab) in combination with fluoropyrimidine-based irinotecan or oxaliplatin chemotherapy for people with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC).

23 Jan 2013

FDA approves Ampio’s IND for Optina for treatment of diabetic macular edema

Ampio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that the FDA has accepted the Company's IND for Optina™ for the treatment of diabetic macular edema (DME). Ampio plans to commence enrollment in a clinical trial in the first quarter of 2013. The FDA granted Optina™ 505(b)(2) status in July, 2012. Drugs designated under this pathway can be approved on a single trial.

22 Jan 2013

ELTD1 biomarker may help diagnose glioma

Researchers using sophisticated genetic testing techniques have identified a promising new biomarker for diagnosis of glioma—the most common type of malignant brain tumor, reports the January issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons.

17 Jan 2013