Judah Folkman / Groundbreaking cancer researcher dies

[Contrary1]

Damn, I'm sorry to hear this. I participated in an anti-angiogenesis trial for a cancer drug based on his studies back in 1998.

"BOSTON - Dr. Judah Folkman, a groundbreaking cancer researcher whose work cured the disease in mice and gave hope for a cure in humans, has died. He was 74.

Folkman died late Monday, said Elizabeth Andrews, a spokeswoman at Children’s Hospital Boston, where Folkman was director of the vascular biology program. Robert Cooke, who wrote the book “Dr. Folkman’s War: Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat Cancer” said he died in Denver of an apparent heart attack.

Folkman’s research focused on cutting off the blood supply that cancer cells need to grow, called angiogenesis, and cured mice of the disease. Although that success has not carried over into humans, his work opened the door to a whole new line of treatment that has slowed the growth of cancer in humans and shown success in treating a variety of other diseases.

“Is it a cure? No, but his idea is to drive tumors into dormancy and for that, it works,” Cooke said. “It’s been turned into a disease like diabetes that can be managed.”

More: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22669007/