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January 16, 2008
Judah Folkman
Posted by Derek
So Judah Folkman is no longer with us. He's considered to be the father of the idea that many tumors help to make their own blood supply, through angiogenesis, and that this could be a way to impede their growth. Since his first papers on the topic were published back in 1971, I think he does indeed get the credit. And he should not only get the credit for having the idea, but for publishing it and sticking with it. (Here's an interview with Folkman where he talks about this and much more).
Interestingly, it had been noted as long ago as 1941 that transplanted tumors in animals managed to link in to the existing blood supply through the formation of new vessels, but no one knew what to do with this result. (Here's a history of the field from a few years ago). It's not surprising that it took so long for the idea to catch on, though. It was by no means clear back in 1971, much less 1941, how blood vessels could be raised up by signaling from their target tissue. It wasn't until much later that the signaling pathways for blood vessel growth were discovered. Vascular endothelial growth factor, for example, was only found in 1983, and its functions didn't become clear until 1989 (timeline).
Folkman's death (which took place in the Denver airport, of all places) has brought back memories of the (in)famous Gina Kolata article on Folkman's work in the New York Times from 1998, a front-pager which featured James Watson's notorious quote about how Folkman was going to cure cancer in two years. I wrote about that one in the early days of my blog, and again here when Entremed finally gave up on the compounds that Kolata and the Times had hyped to the skies. The year 2000 came and went without a cancer cure, and many more years are going to go by as well. That's because, as I and many others never tire of pointing out, cancer isn't a single disease, and will never have a single cure. It's like looking for a cure for bad writing - it comes in so many different varieties, for so many different reasons, and therefore needs many different fixes.
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1. MBryant on January 16, 2008 2:28 PM writes...
Such sad news! His work really has saved many lives - so unfortunate that his ended so early.
The life of my wife was saved by Avastin (in combination with 2 more traditional oncology drugs) after she was diagnosed with a huge inoperable liver tumor & given only a couple months to live. The anti-VEGF therapy shrunk her tumor to less than 1/10 its original size and allowed her to be put onto the liver transplant list. She is 6 months post-transplant and doing fine! All because of Dr. Folkman's pioneering work on role of VEGF and tumor growth.
There is much more work to be done in this area, and am glad to see so many pharma companies have programs in this field. Makes me proud to be a part of this!
Permalink to Comment2. TNC on January 17, 2008 9:23 AM writes...
I heard him speak a few months ago. It was quite a wonderful talk, if a bit of a victory lap. He deserved one.
Permalink to Comment3. Mike_1126 on January 17, 2008 2:23 PM writes...
Derek, in your 2002 post "Hype and Glory" you presciently observed that orally active small molecule anti-angiogenic drugs are the way to go. You also mentioned Entremed in passing as a casualty of those early R&D days. In case you and In-The-Pipeline readers aren't aware, Entremed is currently in early and mid-stage cancer trials with several small molecule angiogenesis inhibitors that are building up an impressive clinical dossier. Foremost among them is 2-methoxyestradiol (2ME2, or Panzem NCD), an endogenous metabolite of estrogen.
Permalink to Comment4. Stephanie on January 24, 2008 12:16 AM writes...
My 6 year old son has tumors in his liver, diagnosed as Angiosarcoma. He is taking Avastin and I hope like MBryant's wife, Avastin will buy us the time we need for a liver transplant. Thank you Dr. Folkman, from the bottom of my heart.
Permalink to Comment5. Mbert on March 7, 2008 3:27 PM writes...
What a shame. I guess this will help with the coverup. Such a shame that billion dollar companies will NEVER allow a cure for cancer to be released.
To the author: There will one day be a singular cure for cancer. To say it is impossible would be like saying there is no one way to melt all types of ice (since you seem to like silly anecdotes).
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