Development of Vascular Disrupting Agents

The majority of the cancer therapies in use today target the malignant cell population. In broad terms, specificity is achieved by exploiting intrinsic differences between normal cells and tumor cells with respect to various key processes including proliferative activity, DNA repair and responsiveness to apoptotic stimuli. Although progress continues to be made, it remains the case that chemotherapy alone is rarely curative. Thus, in recent years increased interest has focused on alternative strategies that instead target various normal cell types upon which the survival and growth of a tumor depends. In this chapter we explore the historical events that lead to development of vascular disrupting therapies and discuss the major approaches currently employed to selectively destroy the neovasculature of solid tumors.