Friday November 27 2009 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Friday November 27 2009 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Lymphangiogenesis: A key player in metastasis? Between 1970 and 1994, cancer claimed the lives of about 500,000 Americans every year. According to the most recent statistics, it is estimated that 1.3 million new cases of cancer will be diagnosed and 555,500 people will die from cancer in the United States in the year 2002. From 1992 to 1998, the incidence of cancer related death was reduced by 1.1%. This modest improvement was related to improved detection and greater therapeutic options. Continued improvement of therapeutic options should further diminish the morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases. One class of pharmaceuticals with particular promise includes inhibitors of angiogenesis. This therapeutic class is anticipated to represent a major focus of anti-cancer therapy and indeed by 2006, the market for all products that play a role in angiogenesis is likely to reach $1.75 billion. While angiogenesis is crucial for the progression of tumors the more recent concept of lymphangiogenesis is suspected as being of greater importance in relation to metastatic spread and indeed clinicopathological data suggest that the lymphatics are an initial route for the spread of solid tumors. Recently, the molecular pathway that signals for lymphangiogenesis and relatively specific markers for lymphatic endothelium have been described allowing analyses of tumor lymphangiogenesis to be performed in animal models. These studies demonstrate that tumor lymphangiogenesis is a major component of the metastatic process and implicate members of the VEGF family of growth factors as key mediators of lymphangiogenesis in both normal biology and tumors. This rapidly emerging field deserves the attention of the pharmaceutical industry and the development of therapeutic molecules able to target lymphangiogenesis, possibly in combination with angiogenesis may signal a quantum leap in cancer therapy.
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