Therapeutics: Vascular endothelial growth factor B (VEGF-B)

Mouse and patient samples studies suggest VEGF-B inhibitors could help treat cancer. In human patients with melanoma or lung cancer, levels of VEGF-B mRNA correlated with poor overall survival. In a mouse model of melanoma, tumor expression of a gain-of-function VEGF-B variant increased vasculature leakage, inflammation and other metastasis-promoting changes to vasculature compared with normal VEGF-B expression, without affecting primary tumor growth. In a xenograft mouse model of VEGF-B-expressing breast cancer, pretreatment of tumor cell lines with shRNA against VEGF-B decreased numbers of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and pulmonary metastases compared with pretreatment of cells with a scrambled shRNA. Next steps could include testing VEGF-B inhibitors in models of cancer...