Monday November 23 2009 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Monday November 23 2009 | Biotechnology feed | All feeds
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Targeting platelets in the treatment of cancer Between 1970 and 1994, cancer claimed the lives of about 0.5 million Americans every year. According to the most recent statistics, it is estimated that well over 1 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 which can be sub-divided into a number of different therapeutic classes including classic alkylating agents and anti-metabolites and new concepts such as angiogenesis inhibitors and apoptosis activators. A further class that deserves greater attention centers around hemastasis. In the "Focus on Angiogenesis" section of this edition of TherapeuticAdvances, we feature the work of Italian researchers who have been investigating the angiogenic activity of human alpha-thrombin, a key component of thrombi. They show that thrombin is able to directly stimulate proangiogenic activity of monocytes. Another role of thrombin is to activate platelets, a further critical component of the thrombotic pathway. Platelets are becoming a recognized target for cancer therapy since they contribute to the metastatic cascade, immune evasion, tumor cell invasion. Furthermore, platelets contain one of the largest stores of angiogenic and mitogenic factors facilitating tumor progression through angiogensis. Up until now platelets have represented a target for cardiovascular disease, however their role, and the role of platelet activators such as thrombin in tumor progression deserves attention. This will hopefully allow stimulate the progression of an untapped area of cancer therapy. Link to journal abstract:
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