Angiogenesis Inhibitors

Overview

Cancerous tumors need a good blood supply to grow and spread. Fueling this growth is the cancer's ability to create new blood vessels to provide itself with oxygen and nutrients. Angiogenesis inhibitors are unique cancer-fighting drugs that disrupt how cancerous tumors make new blood vessels. Stopping the growth of new blood vessels can slow cancer growth or shrink the tumor.

Angiogenesis inhibitors affect the blood vessels that supply the tumors, which causes the cancer cells to starve and stop growing. Depending on the type of cancer you have, you doctor will recommend the appropriate angiogenesis inhibitor.

Angiogenesis inhibitors come in two forms:

• Intravenous (IV), given through a vein
• Pill

Side effects of angiogenesis inhibitors are generally milder than traditional chemotherapy and can include:

• Rash
• Diarrhea
• Fatigue
• High blood pressure
• Protein in urine

Where the cancer started can affect how it is treated. Different drugs can be used based on whether the cancer started in the breast, the lung or somewhere else in the body.

Cancer can cause many symptoms based on where it spreads. For example, you can get a headache if cancer spreads from the breast to the brain. It is important to find out where the cancer started. This will allow the patient to see the right doctor for a consultation.

The Samuel Oschin Cancer Center's outpatient infusion center offers chemotherapy and supportive services. Flooded with sunshine and filled with trees and plants — even aquariums — the infusion center is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

• We find a time that works for you.
• Care for patients' urgent or unexpected needs.
• Oncology nurses are always reachable by phone.
• Eighteen private rooms for treatment sessions six hours or longer.
• Sixteen cozy recliner chairs for shorter sessions.

The infusion center was designed more like a hotel than a hospital. Each private treatment room has a bed, private phone, bathroom, TV, VCR and visitor seating. Rooms have curtains and doors to give many levels of privacy.

For those who need shorter sessions, each of our cozy recliner chairs is outfitted with a DVD laptop. We offer many choices of DVDs and CDs for your entertainment.

• The Angeles Clinic and Research Institute
• Tower Hematology Oncology Medical Group

Scientists at Cedars-Sinai are conducting research on the use of more angiogenesis inhibitors in fighting cancer. Search our clinical trials to learn more about this research and other cancer-fighting drugs.