In the past few years, the media have written numerous, hopeful stories of how scientists are stifling tumors by inhibiting blood vessel growth. But the drugs based on this strategy--Endostatin, Neovastat, and thalidomide, for example--are still, in some cases, under unexpected scrutiny. As oncology researchers confront this reality, other investigators are looking at antiangiogenesis in a new way.
"Cancer is the disease that attracts everyone's attention, but there is angiogenesis research going on in other areas as well," says Peter J. Polverini, a neovascular specialist and dean of the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. "The strategy used to treat cancer can be applied to other diseases."
In fact, dozens of diseases are associated with overactive blood vessel growth, and some are good candidates for antiangiogenesis therapy, says Polverini. For example, angiogenesis associated with psoriasis contributes to the increasing turnover of epithelial cells and puritic plaques; it contributes to Crohn ...
