An article appearing in the Journal of Internal Medicine reported that until the Microvascular Viability Assay (MVA) test, there have been the lack of a relevant and practical system for testing anti-microvascular drugs against human tumors in which to discover synergistic anti-microvascular drug combinations.
According to Dr. Larry Weisenthal, MD, PhD., developer of the test, it works by measuring drug effects upon endothelial cells which make up blood vessels. The MVA test is both relevant and practical for use in discovering synergistic drug combinations and identifying which patients are most likely to benefit from which drug combinations.
Dr. Weisenthal says he would like to see the test become available to patients worldwide through service agreements with larger laboratory companies or with a biotechnology company which might develop a testing kit for sale to hospitals and laboratories. He also would like to license the test to pharmaceutical companies for use in new drug development.
It has been suggested perhaps Genentech/Roche should use assays like MVA to identify a potential target population of breast cancer patients that it thinks will benefit from the drug Avastin and then conduct a randomized clinical trial among this group. I couldn't agree more!
Source: J Intern Med 264:275-287, September 2008
Bibliography relevant to AngioRx/Microvascular Viability assay (MVVA)
1. Weisenthal, L. M. Patel,N., Rueff-Weisenthal, C. (2008). "Cell culture detection of microvascular cell death in clinical specimens of human neoplasms and peripheral blood." J Intern Med 264(3): 275-287.
2. Weisenthal, L., Lee,DJ, and Patel,N. (2008). Antivascular activity of lapatinib and bevacizumab in primary microcluster cultures of breast cancer and other human neoplasms. ASCO 2008 Breast Cancer Symposium. Washington, D.C.: Abstract # 166. Slide presentation at:
http://tinyurl.com/weisenthal-breast-lapatinib
3. Weisenthal, L. M. (2010). Antitumor and anti-microvascular effects of sorafenib in fresh human tumor culture in comparison with other putative tyrosine kinase inhibitors. J Clin Oncol 28, 2010 (suppl; abstr e13617)
4. Weisenthal, L., H. Liu, Rueff-Weisenthal, C. (2010). "Death of human tumor endothelial cells in vitro through a probable calcium-associated mechanism induced by bevacizumab and detected via a novel method." Nature Precedings 28 May 2010. from
http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2010.4499.1
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