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Brief Communication

Nature Medicine 10, 145–147 (1 February 2004) | doi:10.1038/nm988

Direct evidence that the VEGF-specific antibody bevacizumab has antivascular effects in human rectal cancer

Christopher G Willett , Yves Boucher , Emmanuelle di Tomaso , Dan G Duda , Lance L Munn , Ricky T Tong , Daniel C Chung , Dushyant V Sahani , Sanjeeva P Kalva , Sergey V Kozin , Mari Mino , Kenneth S Cohen , David T Scadden , Alan C Hartford , Alan J Fischman , Jeffrey W Clark , David P Ryan , Andrew X Zhu , Lawrence S Blaszkowsky , Helen X Chen , Paul C Shellito , Gregory Y Lauwers & Rakesh K Jain

The effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) blockade on the vascular biology of human tumors are not known. Here we show here that a single infusion of the VEGF-specific antibody bevacizumab decreases tumor perfusion, vascular volume, microvascular density, interstitial fluid pressure and the number of viable, circulating endothelial and progenitor cells, and increases the fraction of vessels with pericyte coverage in rectal carcinoma patients.