Clinical development of VEGF trap

Abstract

The inhibition of angiogenesis is proving to be an effective strategy in treating diseases involving pathological angiogenesis such as cancer and ocular vascular diseases. Since its discovery in the 1980s, vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) has been shown to play a vital role in both physiological and pathological angiogenesis, resulting in the development of numerous approaches to block VEGF and VEGF signaling, ranging from small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitors to protein-based and RNA-based therapeutic candidates. VEGF Trap is one such protein-based agent that has been engineered to bind and sequester VEGF, as well as placental growth factor (PlGF), with high affinity. VEGF Trap has been shown to effectively inhibit pathological angiogenesis in numerous preclinical models of cancer and eye disease, and is now being evaluated in clinical trials in several types of cancer, as well as the 'wet' or neovascular form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD). This chapter will summarize the basic biology of VEGF and the progress of the VEGF Trap from the bench to the clinic. © 2008 Springer US.