Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have published in Nature today results that identify a new pathway for Angiogenesis, new blood vessel growth.

Previously Angiogensis was believed to only occur due to oxygen deprivation which activates Hypoxia Inducible Factors, ultimately stimulating production of vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGF. However the newly discovered pathway is regulated by estrogen-related receptor-alpha and is completely independent of VEGF.

In recent years, companies have developed a number of drugs that manipulate the angiogenic pathway – in both directions. Among them is Genentech’s Avastin, which is designed to starve tumors by blocking the formation of blood vessels in metastatic carcinoma of the colon or rectum. With the recent discovery of a new pathway companies will begin a new round of drug discovery for inhibition of this secondary pathway costing them billions more and possible explaining why a large percentage of drugs developed for angiogenic pathway manipulation have failed.