Notwithstanding the ecstatic headlines which appear too frequently in the press, medical research generally eschews the "major breakthrough". Most of the research which has led to the development of more effective preventive or curative medical techniques, has been slow and laborious. But reports this week from the research laboratories in Harvard and the Boston Children's Hospital have certainly stirred some excitement and very keen interest among the scientists involved in the treatment of cancer.
Dr Judah Folkman and his colleagues have identified and tested two proteins which block the blood vessels providing nutrients to cancerous tumours in mice. The research work involved in identifying and testing the two substances, called angiostatin and endostatin, has already taken many years, but the results of using the substances in mice have been unusually impressive, effectively eliminating most known cancers, including leukaemia, with no observable side-effects. Small wonder, then, that Dr Richard Klausner, Director of the National Cancer Institute in the US, has described the research results as remarkable and indicated that his top priority is to get the substances into human trials as soon as possible.
But Dr James Watson, the scientist who won the Nobel Prize for his work in elucidating the structure of DNA, may have been a mite over-enthusiastic and under-critical when he commented that "Judah is going to cure cancer in two years". Even Dr Folkman, talking to the New York Times, said that "going from mice to people is a big jump with lots of failures: if you have cancer and are a mouse we can take good care of you". A great deal more careful research is required before anyone can say with any kind of certainty whether angiostatin and endostatin can make any impact on the treatment of human cancers.
What seems to be exciting and interesting the scientists in the work of Dr Folkman and his colleagues in mice, is that - in terms of the traditional methods of treating cancers - it seems a nice piece of lateral thinking. Rather than trying to poison the tumours with toxic chemicals or irradiation, the process here is physiologically and biochemically simpler. It is, in essence, a process of simply starving the tumours of their necessary nutrition by depriving them of their blood supply. In theory, at least, that should prove much less hazardous to patients than chemotherapy, irradiation or extensive and disabling surgery.
But it will be several or even many years before people know whether what works in mice in this instance will work in humans. Dr Klausner is quoted as saying that he wanted to get at least some human trials of angiostatin and endostatin running within a year. That seems optimistic, and it will be several years before it can be established whether the treatment is both effective and safe in human beings. It may take less time if the results of human trials are negative. And, of course, the results of the research to date offer no prospect of hope for those already suffering from cancer. But the results in mice must be seen - both because of the results themselves and because of the theoretically under-pinning of the proposed treatment - to offer the potential of significant hope for patients in the future.