Angiogenesis and Cancer: Unravelling the relationship

Modulation of angiogenesis may have impact on diseases in the twenty-first century similar to that which the discovery of antibiotics had in the twentieth century.... Cancer can be surgically removed or destroyed with toxic chemicals or radiation but such treatments that kill cancer cells are toxic to normal cells as well. Targeted cancer therapies take advantage of some property of cancer cells that distinguishes them from normal cells. They block the growth and spread of cancer by interfering with specific target molecules that are involved in growth, progression and spread of cancer. Anti- Angiogenesis therapy is a form of targeted therapy that uses drugs or other substances to stop tumor from making new blood vessels. Because tumors require nutrition to grow more than 1-2mm in size, treatments that block angiogenesis should block tumor growth irrespective of the types of cancer. These drugs when given in combination with chemotherapy help to normalize the tumor vasculature inorder to improve the delivery of chemotherapy. Identifying the optimal indication and maximizing the efficacy of Anti- Angiogenic therapy for cancer is thus the most challenging task.