@proceedings {537,
	title = {From Molecular Genetics and Biology to Effective Treatments of Lymphatic Disorders},
	year = {2016},
	month = {05/2016},
	address = {Mulhouse, France},
	abstract = {In 1971, Judah Folkman proposed the concept of anti-angiogenic tumor therapy. 12 years later, Harold Dvorak isolated the responsible growth factor VEGF. Nine years later, Napoleone Ferrara re-ported the generation of neutralizing monoclonal antibodies against VEGF. Another five years later, Phase I trials started with the humanized version of one of the monoclonals: bevacizumab. Since 2004, when it received FDA approval, it has been marketed under the brand name Avastin.
The translation of basic biomedical research into tangible benefits for patients appears sometimes ago-nizingly slow. The public has been promised much by hyped scientific breakthroughs [4]. Scien-tific journals and scientists have played along in over-hyping scientific breakthroughs in the hope of impact factors and citations in order to secure and justify funding and fame. Not surprisingly, practitioners ask when the discoveries from basic research will finally improve the standard of care for their patients.
Lymphatic research is no exception. Practitioners are largely still limited to symptomatic treatment and there seems to be still an invisible, but perceptible divide between those who do the molecular biol-ogy research and those who treat patients. The Avastin story is a plea for basic research: it might be compli-cated and it might take time, but it eventually does pay off. How is the lymphatic research community doing concerning the translation of research results into treatment options? Examples of lymphatic re-search in or shortly before the clinical trial stage include:
- Growth factor enhanced lymph node transplantation to treat secondary lymphedema
- Utilizing the Schlemm channel{\textquoteright}s lymphatic character in glaucoma treatment
- Anti-angiogenic tumor treatment with anti-lymphangiogenic agents
Treatment of primary lymphedema with VEGF-C has been proposed. How-ever, our understand-ing of the physiological process of lymph vessel development is far from com-plete, despite sig-nificant re-cent progress in our understanding of devel-opmental lymphangiogenesis and first attempts at tis-sue-engineering lymphatic vessels.
If the results from high throughput cancer profilings are predictive of lymphatic conditions, then many patients will feature very individual, multifactorial disease profiles. Even more challenging than the identification of such causes will be the development of treatment regimens that rapidly can be tailored to such individual needs.},
	url = {http://www.eurolymphology.org/JOURNAL/VOL28-N74-2016/$\#$p=14}
}
