New way to control cancer blood supply discovered

Scientists at the ICR’s Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre have discovered an entirely new way to control the development of blood vessels.

The study could lead to improved treatments not just for cancer, but also for other diseases that are highly reliant on a growing blood supply, including types of heart disease, eye disease and obesity-related conditions.

Professor Clare Isacke and colleagues found that a molecule called endosialin – expressed on a type of cell called a pericyte - plays a hitherto undiscovered role in “pruning back” growing blood vessels.

The molecule is only involved during certain stages of vessel formation, which scientists hope will give them a window for a two-pronged attack on the tumour.

Tumours need new blood vessels so they can tap into the supply of nutrients in the blood system, but blood vessels also provide a route for drugs to reach the cancers. Scientists hope to use these findings to manipulate blood vessel growth so they can keep the vessels open when patients are being treated with anti-cancer drugs but then prune away the vessels to starve the cancer.  

Interestingly, there are drugs already in development which could be used to inhibit endosialin to attack cancer in this new way.

The results are published in the journal Blood.