This exhaustive work shows that new therapies using anti-angiogenic drugs are of particular importance because they can be used against many different types of cancer, as tumor angiogenesis seems to be involved in most if not all solid metastasizing malignancies. The first part of this book summarizes the knowledge acquired on the molecular entities that play a role in tumor angiogenesis and their mechanisms of action. Furthermore, the identification of molecular markers and their validation as predictive and/or prognostic tools is reviewed. In the second and most important part, the clinical applications of anti-angiogenic treatments are documented for a wide variety of tumors. In particular, the modes of combination with other targeted and/or cytotoxic cancer therapies are presented.
Dieter Marmé is renowned for his scientific work on molecular biology and tumor biology, and in particular for research into the roles of growth factors in the mechanisms by which tumor angiogenesis is initiated and propagated. At the time of his retirement in 2005, he had spent more than two decades at the Tumor Biology Center in Freiburg, Germany. He initially joined the Center as Director of the Institute of Molecular Medicine in 1993 and later served as its Director of Research and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Priorto joining the Tumor Biology Center, Dr. Marmé had been an Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Genetics and Molecular Biology at the University of Freiburg and had then spent a decade working for Gödecke, a division of Parke-Davis (now Pfizer), initially as Head of Pharmacological Biochemistry and later as Head of Biological Research. Based on the understanding of the mechanisms by which tumors progress and tumor angiogenesis is initiated, he focused on the investigation of therapeutic concepts to interfere with the development of malignancies. After retiring from the Tumor Biology Center in 2005, he continued to work for the institution as an Adviser in Oncology and at the same time became a member of the editorial board for various journals in the field of oncology and a consultant for pharmaceutical companies. Dr. Marmé is the coeditor of the previous Springer book Tumor Angiogenesis: Basic Mechanisms and Cancer Therapy (2008).
