New cancer drugs available.

The latest news from the cancer front--two new drugs, angiostatin and endostatin, are seemingly able to cure virtually all cancerous tumors in mice.

More than 30 years ago, a young Harvard Medical School graduate, Dr. Judah Folkman, became obsessed with the idea that if a person could keep cancers from developing his or her own blood supply, the cancer would not be able to grow. Meanwhile, Dr. Folkman finished his surgical training and became chief of surgery at Children's Hospital in Boston.

Then came the first major breakthrough ten years ago, when he and his research associates discovered a class of drugs that could do just what he had imagined--prevent tumors from developing new blood vessels. The process of developing new blood vessels is called angiogenesis, so these new substances became known as anti-angiogenesis drugs. When given together, they have shrunk even the largest tumors in mice, equivalent to a two-pound growth in humans, to minuscule size. And they have done so without observable side effects or the development of resistance to the drugs.

No one can be sure that they will do the same thing in humans. However, the drugs have so impressed the National Cancer Institute (NCI) that it has made them its top priority. NCI Director Dr. Richard Klausner calls antiangiogenesis drugs "the single most exciting thing on the horizon" for the treatment of cancer.

Dozens of companies are developing anti-angiogenesis drugs, and researchers hope that clinical trials in patients can begin by the end of the year. If they produce similar results in humans, this will indeed be the cancer breakthrough that everyone is hoping for. But even Dr. Folkman is cautious about making predictions. All he knows for sure, he says, is that "if you have cancer and you are a mouse, we can take good care of you."