CANCERS can develop resistance to chemotherapy鈥攂ut this may not be true
for therapies that cut off the blood supply to tumours.
Judah Folkman and Michael O鈥橰eilly at the Children鈥檚 Hospital in Boston
injected endostatin, a protein that inhibits blood vessel growth, into mice with
large lung tumours. Without new blood vessels, they shrank until almost
invisible.
The tumours grew back once the treatment stopped, but more endostatin made
them regress again. During six cycles of treatment then no treatment for 185
days, the tumours never developed resistance. Eventually, they became dormant,
the researchers say in this week鈥檚 Nature (vol 390, p 404). 鈥淲e don鈥檛
know why,鈥� says Folkman.
Advertisement