Targeting angiogenesis with antibodies for the treatment of cancer.

The treatment of cancer by targeting angiogenesis and depriving growing tumors of their blood supply has been recognized as an interesting therapeutic possibility for several decades. A multitude of development programs investigating both low-molecular-weight substances and biologicals, in particular monoclonal antibodies (mAbs), have been instigated. The generation of human or human-like mAbs has led to the recent development of therapeutic antibodies that are potentially highly beneficial in the treatment of cancer. Avastin, which binds to the pro-angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor, is one of the most promising of these antibodies, and has proved beneficial in the treatment of colorectal, lung and breast cancer, with a potential to be used also in other types of cancer. However, as angiogenesis is a complex process controlled by both pro-angiogenic as well as anti-angiogenic factors, several research and development programs targeting different pro-angiogenic factors, receptors and antigens that are selectively expressed on cells in newly formed blood vessels are under way. At BioInvent International AB, research is focused on angiomotin, a newly discovered receptor for the anti-angiogenic factor angiostatin, and on the pro-angiogenic factor placenta growth factor.