Promising new anti-angiogenesis drug!

[Tumbleweed]

Hi, everyone:

I just read this story online:
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSN2936154720080630?pageNumber=3&virtualBrandChannel=10216&sp=true

I'm sure approval of this drug is many years off, but it gives watch-and-waiters and those with recurring tumors some hope of an alternative therapy.

Best wishes,
Tumbleweed

[leapyrtwins]

Interesting read, Tumbleweed.  Thanks for sharing it.

BTW, I was going to ask you what "angiogenesis" meant, but I figured it out from reading the article - thank goodness!

Jan

[jerseygirl]

Thanks, Tumbleweed! That is very good news. I wonder how much it will really help with AN because most of ANs are not blood fed and are actually less vascular than cancer or even meningiomas. Maybe, an antiangiogenesis drug can shrink it or control which will be great. When I explored radiation as an option, my husband asked why ANs don;t disappear or at least shrink significantly in GK. The answer was that ANs are not vascular enough to go away or decrease significantly in size.

                             Eve

[pswift00]

I think I have some of that mold in my basement.  Maybe I'll go down there after work and breath deeply for a while. 

[Tumbleweed]

Thanks, Tumbleweed! That is very good news. I wonder how much it will really help with AN because most of ANs are not blood fed and are actually less vascular than cancer or even meningiomas. Maybe, an antiangiogenesis drug can shrink it or control which will be great. When I explored radiation as an option, my husband asked why ANs don;t disappear or at least shrink significantly in GK. The answer was that ANs are not vascular enough to go away or decrease significantly in size.

                             Eve

Hmmm... that's confusing to me. I thought the whole premise behind radiation treatment was that it creates scar tissue which cuts off blood supply to the tumor. Without blood supply, it dies from malnourishment and the inability to get rid of waste. If they aren't "blood fed," how do they get oxygen and nutrients to grow?? I'm not aware of anything in the human body that can survive without blood, but I'm certainly not that well educated on anatomy.

To be sure, ANs are not like cancerous tumors. But hopefully they will respond to anti-angiogenic drugs.

Best wishes,
Tumbleweed

[sgerrard]

I believe that AN's do have some blood supply, but not as much as other types of tumors. One reason surgery sometimes is able to leave nerves intact, but the nerves stop working anyway, is because removing the AN disrupts the blood flow in the area, reducing the supply to the nerve.

One mode of radiation does have to do with scarring up the blood vessels, but it also works by creating free radicals in the tissue that cause damage to DNA and other cell structures. The disruption leads to shutting down of normal cell growth and division processes, halting the growth of the tumor. That's the story I got from one oncology intern doing a physical on me at Stanford, anyway.

Given the slow growth rate of typical ANs, I doubt that anti-angiogenic drugs will become a major factor in controlling them, but you never know...

Steve

[Tumbleweed]

Given the slow growth rate of typical ANs, I doubt that anti-angiogenic drugs will become a major factor in controlling them, but you never know...

Steve

The natural anti-angiogenic supplements I took for 6 months after diagnosis certainly didn't halt my tumor's growth; instead, it grew much faster than normal! 

But maybe a drug, which is much more concentrated, will work. In any event, such developments are a long way off from being proven and FDA approved.

Best wishes,
Tumbleweed

[leapyrtwins]

The natural anti-angiogenic supplements I took for 6 months after diagnosis certainly didn't halt my tumor's growth; instead, it grew much faster than normal! 

Tumbleweed -

this is probably just a coincidence.  I took nothing between my diagnosis and surgery (approximately 6 weeks) and my AN mysteriously doubled in size.  I think the rapid growth we both experienced, is nothing more than a fluke.  Guess we're both just special 

Jan

[jerseygirl]

Tumbleweed,

I echo what Steve said that radiation damages AN two ways: one is disrupting the growth of every radiated cell by damaging its DNA and another by damaging its blood vessels. Most ANs are not highly vascular. Today it is not a bloody surgery generally and patients very rarely get blood. However, young women can have a tendency to have big blood vessels to run through the tumor  cauterization of which causes problems. That is what happened to me the first time. I was 25, my tumor was of medium vascularity (neurosurgeon's words) and big blood vessels ran through it. I received one unit of blood a day after surgery.  The second time my tumor had very little blood supply on top, a lot on the bottom and was necrotizing at the center. I received no blood post-op. In fact, my hemoglobin did not even dip. The radiation specialist mentioned that  AN is outgrowing its blood supply. I got my hopes up that maybe I did not have to anything to it. Unfortunately, he explained that ANs grow from the bottom and it will grow unless I treat it. Hope that helps.

                Eve

[Tumbleweed]

Tumbleweed -

this is probably just a coincidence.  I took nothing between my diagnosis and surgery (approximately 6 weeks) and my AN mysteriously doubled in size.  I think the rapid growth we both experienced, is nothing more than a fluke.  Guess we're both just special 

Jan

Hi, Jan:

I think you're right. After experiencing rapid growth in between my initial and first-followup MRIs (roughly 50% increase in tumor volume), I expected the CT scan taken 2 months later (in preparation for CK treatment last week) to show continued growth. Instead, two of the measurements were the same and another was 1.3 mm smaller! Perhaps there is a 1 mm+ margin of error in CT scans as with MRIs (does anyone know if this is the case?). But at the very least, the tumor had not grown in the past two months. So it appears that these growth spurts might be totally random events.

Best wishes,
Tumbleweed

[Dana]

I just want to thank everyone for this discussion.  I  never even thought about WHAT and HOW the radiation was doing.... "and I think of myself as informed - HA!"   Very interesting.
Ciao
Dana