This chapter:

• discusses Endostatin, a revolutionary, potential treatment for cancer that could change how the disease is managed.

• features Dr. Judah Folkman, a cancer surgeon running the clinical trials for Endostatin.

• profiles two cancer patients who meet the criteria to enter the clinical trials for Endostatin.

• states that it is not yet known whether Endostatin will be effective.

This chapter:

• points out that current cancer treatment involves extreme measures.

• elucidates that Endostatin kills healthy cells that feed tumors.

• recounts how Endostatin was developed in Dr. Folkman's lab.

• explains how Dr. Folkman arrived at his theory that tumors secrete a mystery factor that triggers blood vessel growth.

This chapter:

• describes tumor angiogenesis experiments.

• follows the search for the mechanism of angiogenesis and the factor(s) that trigger blood vessel growth.

• explains the lengthy purification process for potential molecules involved in angiogenesis and their final analysis by molecular size, weight, charge, and affinity for other molecules.

• tells that after more than a decade, one protein was purified, put in a slow-release pellet, and inserted into a cornea where it triggered blood vessel growth.

• states that this work may lead to a new way to treat cancer.

This chapter:

• follows the search for angiogenesis inhibitors during the 1970s using cartilage from cow bones.

• describes experiments designed to inhibit vessel growth.

• reports an accidental discovery that led to the development of an experimental drug, TNP 470, that could inhibit mouse tumors by 67 percent.

This chapter:

• reports on the search for better angiogenesis inhibitors by looking at existing drugs.

• describes how thalidomide was chosen for testing.

• reports on test results with thalidomide.

This chapter:

• explains how cancer cells travel the bloodstream, lodge in another place such as the liver or lung, and continue to grow again.

• describes how in a small percentage of patients, somewhat dormant metastases come to life when their primary tumor is removed.

• reports on the discovery that some normal cells secrete angiogenesis inhibitors.

• elucidates how primary tumors seem to be the source of the inhibitor.

This chapter:

• presents the search for inhibitors in mouse tumors.

• describes the process of urine collection and protein purification that led to isolation of the molecule, angiostatin.

• summarizes research results involving administering angiostatin to mice with cancer.

This chapter:

• presents one patient's experience on Endostatin.

• tells how the angiogenesis inhibitor studies marked the beginning of a change in how physicians treat cancer.

• states that at least two dozen drugs that block blood vessel growth exist, and thousands of researchers are now working on angiogenesis.