Folkman, 74, the director of the vascular biology program at Children's Hospital Boston, proved that the growth of tumors could be stopped or even reversed by cutting off the blood supply that cancer needs to grow. Largely on the strength of Folkman's research, pharmaceutical companies today are testing dozens of drugs that treat cancer without the toxic side effects of conventional chemotherapy. Several of these drugs, called angiogenesis inhibitors, are already available and have been proven to extend the lives of advanced cancer patients by at least a few months.
Folkman's remarkable results in the laboratory set off worldwide speculation that he would be the man to cure cancer, but he was uneasy with the accolades because cancer is such a complex disease. "We never use the word 'cure' because it is far away," Folkman said in one of his last interviews. "It may be that patients will have little tiny cancers that lie dormant for a long time."
Source: http://www.boston.com
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