[Anti-angiogenesis, a possible new modality of cancer treatment].

During the past decade a number of pioneering knowledge of neovascularization induced by neoplasm have been accumulated and a clinical application of anti-angiogenesis treatment seems to be launched within very near future. While the most Japanese research workers in the medical field are still dreaming of immunological approaches to cancers. But now we should stand on the wide view of basic biology of cancer and open searches for newer attacking targets of cancers. Such a newer modality may be included in biological treatment against not only tumor growth but also invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis. As an example of a search for newer attacking target of cancer, here I proposed a view point regarding tumor angiogenesis as a symbiotic system of tumor cells and endothelial cells and I reviewed briefly on recent aspects of angiogenesis and anti-angiogenesis, introducing works of Drs. Folkman, Fenselau, Kumar, Weiss, Rifkin, Langer, Eisenstein, Gullino, and others. I hope this short review may attract many more research workers to the "virgin" field of angiogenesis.