National Cancer Institute Researchers Discover Genes That Are Turned On at High Levels in Tumor-Associated Blood Vessels of Mice and Humans

A team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has uncovered a set of genes that are turned on, or expressed, at high levels only in the blood vessels that feed tumors in mice and humans. These genes, and the proteins they encode, are important new potential targets for novel drugs that could selectively cut off a tumor? blood supply without affecting the blood vessels of healthy tissues, overcoming one of the major concerns of current anticancer therapies targeted at blood vessel growth. The findings are published in the June 2007 issue of the journal Cancer Cell.