VEGF News and Research

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

Placental growth factor may help body repair heart attack damage

Heart attack patients produce higher levels of a natural substance in the body that plays a role in the growth of new blood vessels and this over-expression of placental growth factor (PlGF) may help reduce damage to the heart muscle

17 Apr 2006

Fat cells surrounding coronary arteries may play a role in development of heart disease

The fat cells that surround coronary arteries may play a central and previously unrecognized role in development of cardiovascular disease, according to a study by University of Iowa researchers.

11 Apr 2006

Moderate alcohol intake stimulates tumor angiogenesis and expression of vascular endothelial growth factor in a mouse model

University of Mississippi researchers say they have created the first-ever mammalian model of how alcohol consumption spurs tumor growth, showing that even moderate drinking resulted in larger and more robust tumors.

4 Apr 2006

Trial of paclitaxel with or without bevacizumab as first-line therapy for locally recurrent or metastatic breast cancer

Results from a large, randomised clinical trial for patients with breast cancer show that those who received bevacizumab (Avastin.) in combination with paclitaxel (Taxol.) survived without the disease getting worse for almost twice as long as patients who received paclitaxel alone.

23 Mar 2006

Thrombocytosis: A clinical marker of tumor aggressiveness in renal cell carcinoma

Molecular and serum markers of prognosis in renal cell carcinoma have remained elusive. In large part, tumor (TNM) stage, Fuhrman grade, and patient performance status have stood the test of time as the most valuable factors in predicting patient outcome following surgery.

15 Mar 2006

Study may lead to ways to reduce heart attacks in diabetes patients

For people with type 2 diabetes, the death rate from a first heart attack is two to three times the death rate of patients without the disease. Similarly, patients with diabetes and ischemic (reduced blood flow) heart disease have a much higher mortality rate than the general population.

7 Mar 2006

Avastin trial for pancreatic tumors

"Our findings from the previous study suggest that the combination of chemotherapy and radiation is a safe and effective treatment method to reduce the local extent of pancreatic tumors," said Dr. Talamonti.

23 Feb 2006

Chink in cancer's armor

Much as the famed starship Enterprise would deploy a deflector shield to evade enemy attack, tumor cells are capable of switching on a molecular force field of their own to fend off treatments aimed at killing them. Now University of Florida researchers have found a chink in their armor.

13 Feb 2006

Monotherapy phase I clinical trials of novel cytotoxics, targeted therapeutics, antimetastatic agents/angiogenesis inhibitors, and immunotherapeutics/vaccines

Numerous novel oncology agents are currently in phase I monotherapy trials. New Medicine's Oncology KnowledgeBASE (nm|OK) has updated the records of 92 such agents with preclinical or clinical results reported during the 2005 meetings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)

7 Feb 2006

Aston Academy investigates macular oedema

Aston Academy of Life Sciences, the clinical research hospital of Aston University, has recently been commissioned to assess the efficacy and safety of a specialist drug, Posurdex (Allergan Ltd, UK), which is used in the treatment of patients who suffer from a sight threatening condition, called macular oedema.

26 Jan 2006

Tomato juice keeps emphysema from developing in new animal model of degenerative disease

Feeding tomato juice to mice kept them from developing emphysema after cigarette smoke exposure that was long enough to induce emphysema in a control group, Japanese researchers report in February issue of the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology.

10 Jan 2006

FLT-1 blockers, cutting the legs of leukaemia

Leukaemia is characterised by an uncontrolled growth of abnormal blood cells in the bone marrow (BM).

14 Nov 2005

University of Alberta researchers pioneer gene therapy to restore alveoli and lung capillaries in damaged rat lungs

The good news is that medical advances in perinatal care have allowed us to save many more premature babies. The bad news is they're often at risk of developing bronchopulmonary dysplasia--a chronic lung disease caused by having to place the tiny infants on ventilators and oxygen-rich therapy for acute respiratory failure.

13 Nov 2005

Chlamydia pneumoniae may cause vision problems

Researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI) have found that Chlamydia pneumoniae, a bacterium linked to heart disease and capable of causing chronic inflammation, was present in the diseased eye tissue of five out of nine people with neovascular, or "wet," age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

7 Nov 2005

First study to confirm the benefit of anti-angiogenic therapy in patients with breast cancer

Results from the first and only interim analysis of an important trial assessing the potential of Herceptin (trastuzumab) to improve disease-free survival (DFS) in HER-2 positive breast cancer patients after adjuvant chemotherapy, have shown that Herceptin affords a significant survival advantage.

1 Nov 2005

How cells use very slow biological flows to signal and organize

An EPFL (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne) team led by professor Melody Swartz has demonstrated for the first time that the presence of very slow biological flows affects the extracellular environment in ways that are critical for tissue formation and cell migration.

25 Oct 2005

Nitric oxide synthase plays a role in peripheral vascular disease

The enzyme nitric oxide synthase plays a role in peripheral vascular disease, a common disease that impairs the mobility of 25 percent of people over the age of 50, according to a Yale study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

26 Aug 2005

New finding has potentially major implications for anti-angiogenic therapy

Scientists supported by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) have added a key new piece to the puzzle of how tumor cells induce new blood vessels to form and fuel their abnormal growth, a well-known process called angiogenesis.

18 Jul 2005

Curcumin has potent anticancer powers

Curcumin, a spice commonly used in curries and other south Asian cooking, blocks a key biological pathway needed for development of melanoma and other cancers, say researchers from the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

12 Jul 2005

Sirna Therapeutics granted new UK patents

Sirna Therapeutics has announced that the United Kingdom (UK) Patent Office has granted the Company two additional short interfering RNA (siRNA) target patents. The first patent covers any siRNA with one or more chemical modifications targeting Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF).