50 years ago, starving tumors of oxygen proposed as weapon in cancer fight
Excerpt from the May 4, 1968 issue of Science News
AIR SUPPLY Depriving some cancerous tumors, such as this mouse breast tumor, of oxygen by cutting off blood vessels (red) is one treatment approach. But some oxygen-starved cancer cells (green) can become more aggressive.
Steve Seung-Young Lee/Univ. of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center, NCI/NIH, Flickr (CC By-NC 2.0)
Starve the tumor, not the cell
Animal experiments demonstrate for the first time that transplanted tumors release a chemical into the host’s bloodstream that causes the host to produce blood vessels to supply the tumor.… If such a factor can be identified in human cancers … it might be possible to prevent the vascularization of tumors. Since tumors above a certain small size require a blood supply to live, they might by this method be starved to death. — Science News, May 4, 1968
Update
By the 1990s, starving tumors had become a focus of cancer research. Several drugs available today limit a tumor’s blood supply. But the approach can actually drive some cancer cells to proliferate, researchers have found. For those cancers, scientists have proposed treatments that open up tumors’ gnarled blood vessels, letting more oxygen through. Boosting oxygen may thwart some cancer cell defenses and promote blood flow — allowing chemotherapy drugs and immune cells deeper access to tumors (SN: 3/4/17, p. 24).
