Drug Insight: vascular disrupting agents and angiogenesis—novel approaches for drug delivery

Vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) are designed to disrupt the already established abnormal vasculature, and induce rapid shutdown of tumor blood supply causing subsequent tumor death from hypoxia and nutrient deprivation. The authors discuss the strategies to improve drug delivery, and suggest that further clinical trials need to evaluate novel treatment strategies that combine VDAs with radiotherapy, cytotoxic drugs, anti-angiogenic agents, and other novel targeted therapies. Close attention to the cardiovascular side effect profile of these agents is also imperative during their clinical development.