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© 2005 Oxford University Press
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Taking Down Tumors: Vascular Disrupting Agents Entering Clinical Trials
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A tumor's support system—its existing blood vessels, or vasculature—nourishes the tumor by supplying oxygen and nutrients, allowing it to grow, spread, and often turn lethal. Antiangiogenesis approaches attempt to prevent the formation of these blood vessels, but researchers are also focused on targeting the established vasculature in hopes of destroying tumors by obliterating the blood vessel underpinnings that support them.
Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) work by causing the endothelial cells, cells that line the inside of blood vessels, to change shape and collapse. This action shuts off blood flow to tumors, leading to cell death. "You don't, by any means, have to affect all the endothelial cells in a vessel," explained Dietmar W. Siemann, Ph.D., a radiation oncologist at the University of Florida in Gainesville. "All you have to do is cause a collapse by damaging some
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