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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Researchers are learning more about why some cancers regrow after initially responding to chemotherapy, and what can be done to stop them in their tracks.
While chemotherapy is effective in shrinking cancerous tumors, in some cases the tumor begins to regrow following the treatment, according to University of Toronto investigators. Studies suggested drugs that inhibit the growth of the blood vessels tumors need to thrive could help keep that from happening.
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They decided to look into that process, pinpointing substances known as circulating endothelial progenitors (CEPs), which come from bone marrow and assist the tumor in regrowing blood vessels, as a key player.
From there, they examined different chemotherapy drugs to see how they impact CEP mobilization and whether different antiangiogenic drugs known to keep blood vessels from growing would block that mobilization.
Results showed the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel rapidly induced CEP mobilization, while the drug gemcitabine did not. Inhibiting CEP mobilization with an antiangiogenic drug enhanced the antitumor effects of paclitaxel, but had no effect on gemcitabine.
Our results provide a new perspective regarding the impact that conventional chemotherapy can have on tumor angiogenesis and hence how combination with antiangiogenic drugs may amplify the antitumor effects of chemotherapy, study author Dr. Robert S. Kerbel was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: Cancer Cell, published online September 8, 2008
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