Cancer pioneer Judah Folkman dies

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Dr. Judah Folkman, who discovered that tumors generate their own network of tiny blood vessels to nourish themselves, has died at the age of 74, Harvard Medical School said on Tuesday.

Folkman's work founded an entire branch of cancer research called anti-angiogenesis therapy. His theory was that if a tumor could be stopped from growing its own blood supply, it would wither and die.

The theory helped in the development of such drugs as Genentech's Avastin and other targeted cancer therapies.

"This is (a) devastating loss to not only our hospital family, but the world at large," Dr. James Mandell, president and chief executive officer of Children's Hospital in Boston, where Folkman was based, said in a letter to staff.

"Dr. Folkman, founder and director of the Vascular Biology program, was a true visionary and scientific pioneer," Mandell added.

"Because of Dr. Folkman's vision, more than 10 new cancer drugs are currently on the market, and more than 1.2 million patients worldwide are now receiving anti-angiogenic therapy."

Folkman was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1933 and graduated from Ohio State University in 1953. He earned his medical degree at Harvard Medical School in 1957 and stayed there for much of the rest of his career.

Folkman said he came up with his angiogenesis theories while serving as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the early 1960s, at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.