Almost all cancerous tumors, including breast cancer, require a blood supply in order to grow beyond a few millimeters in size. The growth of new capillary blood vessels from existing ones is a process called angiogenesis. In breast cancer, angiogenesis is known to begin at the earliest stages of tumor growth and continue unabated through progression to metastatic disease.²

Drugs that disrupt the tumor blood supply, called angiogenesis inhibitors, are dramatically altering the treatment landscape of some of the most common and feared cancer types. Antiangiogenic therapies are offering new hope to thousands of metastatic breast cancer patients, many of whom had few, if any, remaining treatment options.

Unlike conventional chemotherapy drugs that kill cancer cells directly, antiangiogenic drugs deprive cancer cells of essential oxygen and nutrients by blocking the formation of tumor blood vessels. By combining angiogenesis inhibitors with conventional chemotherapy and radiation, clinicians can now attack breast cancer from multiple directions, greatly improving the chances for treatment success.