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Science
Friday > Archives
> 1998
> May
> May 8, 1998:
Hour One: Examining a cancer "breakthrough."
Before last weekend, the words "angiostatin" and "endostatin" weren't known to many people outside of a fairly select group of cancer researchers and some cancer patients that closely follow current research. But that was before the weekend.
On Sunday, the New York Times published a front-page article about research into treating cancer with angiostatin and endostatin. The article touched off a flurry of media coverage about the two anti-tumor drugs - which, while they show impressive results in mice, have not been tested in humans and will not be for years to come.
| The drugs, which were discovered in the lab of Drs. Judah Folkman and Timothy O'Reilly at Children's Hospital in Boston, work by preventing a process called "angiogenesis" that allows new blood vessels to form. Without a blood supply, the theory goes, tumors cannot survive. Tumors in mice tested with the two compounds have shrunk, even disappeared, and not returned. | 
Angiostatin and endostatin work by
stopping the formation of the blood
vessels that feed tumors. | But even Dr. Folkman, one of the leading proponents of antiangiogenic drugs, cautions that the medications have been tested only in mice, that human trials are years away, and that even if the compounds are found to be useful, they would only be used to supplement existing radiation and chemotherapy treatments - not replace them.
So why, then, has there been such an uproar over these drugs? What made prices of stock in EntreMed, a company working to capitalize on the two drugs, go crazy on Monday? Is it a testament to the hopes of cancer patients, desperate for a cure? Or does it just show the power of the New York Times to influence world opinions of what is "news?"
On this hour of Science Friday - a look at the intersection of science, the media, and the markets.
Tracking the story in the media, on the net, and in the markets... | Date | Articles
in newspapers or magazines | Newsgroup postings "angiostatin or endostatin" and "cancer" | Newsgroup postings
"EntreMed" | Entremed closing stock price | Entremed stock volume | | Jan 1 - May 1 | 2 | 21 | 0 | $12.16 (avg) | 56600 (avg) | | | | | | | | | May 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | mkt closed | mkt closed | | May 3 | 0 | 10 | 1 | mkt closed | mkt closed | | May 4 | 4 | 11 | 4 | 51.81 | 23527700 | | May 5 | 5 | 16 | 14 | 43.125 | 9068500 | | May 6 | | 6 | 27 | 31.125 | 6575200 | Where those numbers come from: We searched the Nexis service for newspaper and magazine articles longer than 350 words mentioning "(angiostatin or endostatin) and cancer" four times or more. Postings to UseNet newsgroups were found through the DejaNews search service. We searched for "(angiostatin or endostatin) and cancer" and for "EntreMed." EntreMed stock prices and volumes were obtained from NASDAQ figures.
Guests:
Dr. Joseph Bertino
Chairman
Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics Program
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
New York, NY
Michael Waldholz
Pulitzer Prize-winning Reporter and Deputy Editor of Health and Science
The Wall Street Journal
Aurtor, "Curing Cancer" (Simon and Schuster)
New York, NY
Franklin Berger
Senior Biotechnology Analyst
J.P. Morgan
New York, NY
Michael O'Reilly
Research Fellow
Children's Hospital
Boston, MA
Articles Discussed:
"HOPE IN THE LAB: A special report.; A Cautious Awe Greets Drugs
That Eradicate Tumors in Mice" by Gina Kolata. New York Times, Sunday,
May 3, 1998.
Nature, 27 November 1997: "Antiangiogenic therapy of experimental cancer
does not induce acquired drug resistance (Letter to Nature)" by T Boehm,
J Folkman, T Browder & M S O'Reilly
Related Links:
Call the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service at 1-800-4-CANCER
"Special Project Angiogenesis"
Antiangiogenesis for cancer therapy - Lancet Supplement
Scientific American issue on cancer (1996) - includes article by Dr. Folkman
EntreMed
Endostatin, Newly Discovered
Angiogenic Inhibitor Licensed - (1996 press release from EntreMed)
Children's Hospital in Boston,
home of Dr. Folkman and O'Reilly.
American Cancer Society
National Cancer Institute
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