A treatment for neuroblastoma that lands a one-two punch works best when the second punch is timed to take maximum advantage of the first one, according to results of studies at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Neuroblastoma is a pediatric solid tumor that arises from cells in the peripheral nervous system. The finding holds promise for improving neuroblastoma treatment by using the drug bevacizumab to block VEGF, a protein that stimulates blood vessel growth in tumors and then following with the chemotherapy drug topotecan, which depends on blood vessels to penetrate the tumor and kill the cancer cells. A report on this work appears in the current issue of “Clinical Cancer Research.”
