Angiogenic Therapy

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On November 18th, 1971, Judah Folkman, a little known New England surgeon, published a scientific paper documenting the dependency of tumors on the growth of new blood vessels from the body, as well as the therapeutic implications resulting from his new discovery. Dr. Folkman proposed that the tumor recruited these blood vessels to support itself. The process by which tumors elicit these blood vessels from the body is known as “angiogenesis”. The publication of Dr. Judah Folkman’s paper entitled, “Tumor angiogenesis: therapeutic implications” (New England Journal of Medicine, 1971) has influenced cancer research by establishing a new field of study with treatment possibilities that solve many age-old therapeutic dilemmas. Angiogenic therapy offers a universal treatment approach to all cancers, better mechanisms for catching cancer early, and also answers for previously unexplained phenomena, such as tumor dormancy.

Judah Folkman was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1933. In 1953 he graduated from the Ohio State University and went on to Harvard Medical School. Afterwards, Dr. Folkman became a surgeon and made important discoveries throughout a range of medical fields before he became interested in cancer. For instance, he is responsible for pioneering in the field of controlled medication release, which in turn led to the invention of the popular contraceptive “Norplant”. During the 1960’s, Dr. Folkman was drafted to the navy and began investigating the possible use of a blood substitute that could be stored for long periods of time and then given to wounded. After Dr. Folkman completed his assignment, he began to experiment on his own time, investigating cancer and the biology of solid tumors. ...

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...ughout Tumor Development?” Research VEGF. Gentech, 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. .

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Pacific Life Insurance Company. “Cancer Biomarkers: Still Controversial.” Pacific Life. Pacific Life Insurance Co., 2010. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. .

Tosetti, Francesca, et al. “‘Angioprevention’: Angiogenesis as a Common and Key Target for Cancer Chemopreventive Agents.” FASEB 16 (2002): 2-14. The FASEB Journal. Web. 27 Apr. 2010. .

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