Nearly every tissue inside our body gets blood from the thin capillaries that lace our tissues. Via capillaries, nutrients, oxygen as well as other signaling molecules diffuse into cells. These kinds of mechanisms sustain health, fight disease, and give the body to flourish and develop.

Experts have realized that tumors begin without circulation. During the early stages of tumor development, they are limited to a trickle of nutrients that can diffuse from the closest capillary vessels. Then, for some reason, tumors start to stimulate healthy tissue to produce thousands of new capillaries to supply the cancerous growth or a process called angiogenesis. Without this ability to nourish itself and develop, a tumor cannot enlarge. When the blood supply may be cut down or shut down, the tumor will shrink or die.

Researchers are convinced that a primary tumor delivers chemical compounds to signal new blood vessels to develop into it, but at the same time also sends a chemical signal that prevents other tumors from growing in other parts of the body.

Advanced biomedical technology has now precise those indicators, and most experts believe that the angiogenesis process (activation of new blood vessel growth) regulates the growth of metastatic tumors.

When the primary tumor is taken away, there is nothing to prevent other tumors from growing in other places. That's why many cancer patients frequently get worse after going through tumor removal according to cancer research.

In recent times, various drugs-including interferons, steroids, and certain hormonal agents are actually produced to stop or slow angiogenesis. In fact, at least 11 anti-angiogenic drugs are now in clinical trials and 3 have proved capable enough to make it to final phase.

Some of the drugs, such as endostatin, are derived from natural proteins, while others are based on smaller molecules. Satirically, one good drug on trial now is thalidomide, which once was sold as a sedative which caused notorious birth defects
in the children of women who took it.

Another drug, 2-methoxyestradiol (2-ME), is a natural estrogen metabolite believed to be an inhibitor of angiogenesis and also an antitumor agent. Also, researchers are examining a drug called Col-3 and therefore are discussing with several biotechnology companies to look at other anticancer compounds.

Of all the anti-angiogenic drugs, endostatin and angiostatin appear to hold the very best potential for saving lives. These drugs are nontoxic and possess shown efficacy against all types of cancer they have been tested against.

Based on this new information, angiostatin and endostatin may drastically boost the quantity of cancer patients who become disease free after surgery.

From Kok Siong Chen.