Dr. Rugo on the Future of Angiogenesis in Breast Cancer

Hope S. Rugo, MD, clinical professor, Department of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology); and Director, Breast Oncology Clinical Trials Program, University of California, San Francisco, explains that the future of angiogenesis inhibitors is an extremely complicated area.

Rugo expresses that the first step was to establish how important angiogenesis is in malignant progression, invasion, metastasis, and survival of metastatic disease. It is clear that angiogensis does play a role in tumor progression but that role has not yet been fully defined.

The process of angiogenesis has many functions both in tumors and normal cell function and this makes it extremely difficult to work with. In the future she believes combination therapies will need to be used in more effective and smarter ways in order to increase the efficacy of anti-angiogenesis treatments.