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ANTIANGIOGENESIS: Stopping Unwanted Blood Vessel Growth the Natural Way

NEW YORK, May 14 /PRNewswire/ -- News about synthetic drugs that inhibit unwanted blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) in disease has created major interest at the expense of considering freely available, natural substances that are known to cause the phenomenon of inhibition of angiogenesis. More than two dozen pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are seeking ways to inhibit new blood vessel growth (angiogenesis) in disease. Angiogenesis is a factor that underlies cancer, arthritis, general skin diseases, Kaposis sarcoma and the commonest causes of blindness in Western society. New drugs that have been developed are called angiogenesis inhibitors which block signals that cancer and inflamed tissues send out to cause and attract new blood vessel growth.

Natural agents with similar properties are available as dietary supplements. According to Dr. Stephen Holt, M.D., the President and CEO of BioTherapies, Inc., a Fairfield, New Jersey based dietary supplement company we may not be recognizing the obvious. "The media has gone crazy in the last week or two with the promise of synthetic inhibitors of angiogenesis that can be channeled into clinical trials in the face of the existence of natural inhibitors of angiogenesis that are widely available in certain dietary supplements." Dr. Judah Folkman is the pioneer of antiangiogenesis research and he started by looking at natural substances such as shark cartilage that he showed were potent inhibitors of angiogenesis more than a decade ago. He and others believed that these natural inhibitors of angiogenesis in shark cartilage may not get absorbed into the body but clinical experience and human studies have shown that they may.

Stimulated by Dr. Folkman's earlier research, BioTherapies, Inc. has been researching natural products for the inhibition of angiogenesis at major university centers for several years. BioTherapies, Inc., sells two dietary supplements with antiangiogenic effects that are natural and safe. The first product, Cartilade, is the only patented, natural antiangiogenic product in the market. Cartilade is 100% pure shark cartilage that has been used for seven years by hundreds of thousands of individuals and according to Dr. Holt "in more than 400 million unit doses,

Cartilade has been shown to be safe and efficacious, especially for the promotion of bone and joint health." Cartilade is widely used as an alternative option for bone and joint problems and for assistance with the rehabilitation of sports injuries. An endorsement of Cartilade for bone and joint health has been made by sporting greats including Sandy Alomar, Ile Natase, a good proportion of the San Francisco Giants and Chicago White Sox baseball teams where the head trainers, Mark Letendre and Herm Schneider, have repeatedly proclaimed the benefit of Cartilade for sports injuries and repetitive stress injuries.

Business Week of April 27, 1998, major TV news programs and subsequently every recent daily newspaper have carried articles on the breakthrough. Recent news releases have referred to the earlier work of Dr. Judah Folkman on the application of angiogenesis inhibition for the starvation of blood supply to tumors using both shark cartilage and the newer synthetic agents that inhibit angiogenesis. More than two years ago BioTherapies, Inc., spent several million dollars on FDA phase II and other clinical trials of Cartilade as an antiangiogenic agent in advanced cancer. "The results of these studies showed no overall improvement in advanced cancer," according to Dr. Holt and he cautions "the definition of in vitro (in laboratory) effects of antiangiogenic compounds needs rigorous testing in patients (in vivo) before one can jump to conclusions." Dr. Holt says many physicians and he believe that disease stabilization and in some but a limited number of cases, the reversal of cancer may occur with Cartilade, but the studies required to demonstrate an effect require many patients and studies in patients, who are not terminal, as was the case with the FDA trial of Cartilade. Cartilade was used in an extensive trial at the University of Havana in Cuba where resolution and cure of cancer was reported and widely reviewed in a segment of "Sixty Minutes" hosted by Mike Wallace. Dr. Holt cautions, "many people are seeking natural inhibitors of angiogenesis in dietary supplement format and good examples are the products: Cartilade and Phyto-Est (soy isoflavones), produced by BioTherapies, Inc." However, Dr. Holt states "regulatory authorities permit body/structure function claims but it is not ethical or legal to make treatment claims with dietary supplements. Cartilade is a patented inhibitor of angiogenesis and soy isoflavones possess similar potent antiangiogenic effects." These issues are addressed in Dr. Holt's two new books that will be launched later this year: "The Soy Revolution" by M. Evans Publishing, Inc. and "The Power of Cartilage" by Kensington Publishers, Inc., New York. Dr. Holt qualifies all of his statements by emphasizing the "dietary supplements have not been shown to cure cancer or even treat cancer effectively, but they are promising and more research on natural options is justified but overlooked because of their lack of proprietary nature."

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