Methods for treating neoplastic disease characterized by vascular endothelial growth factor D expression, for screening for neoplastic disease or metastatic risk, and for maintaining vascularization of tissue
A method for treating and alleviating disease characterized by the expression of VEGF-D involving screening to find an organism with tumor cells expressing VEGF-D and administering an effective amount of a VEGF-D antagonist; a method for screening for neoplastic diseas, where detection of VEGF-D on or in a sample such as tumor cells, blood vessel endothelial cells or lymph vessel endothelial cells indicates neoplastic disease; a method for promoting and maintaining vascularization of normal tissue in an organism involving administering a vascularization promoting amount of VEGF-D or a fragment or analog thereof to the organism; a method for screening tumors for metastatic risk involving detecting expression of VEFG-D by a tumor which indicates metastatic risk; and a method of detecting micro-metastasis of neoplastic disease involving detection of VEGF-D on or in a tissue sample which indicates metastasis of a neoplastic disease.
1. A method of diagnosing growth characteristics of a neoplastic disease in an organism, the method comprising:
(a) contacting a sample from an organism with a neoplastic disease with an antibody that specifically binds human VEGF-D;
(b) measuring amount of unprocessed full-length VEGF-D polypeptide having a molecular weight of approximately (˜) 53 K in said sample; and
(c) diagnosing growth characteristics of the neoplastic disease from the amount of the VEGF-D having a molecular weight of approximately (˜)53 K measured in step (b), wherein increased unprocessed full-length VEGF-D having a molecular weight of approximately (˜)53 K in said sample correlates with increased tumor growth or metastatic risk.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said sample is selected from the group consisting of tissue, blood, serum, plasma, urine, ascities fluid and pleural effusion.
3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said sample comprises endothelial cells.
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said antibody is a monoclonal antibody.
5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said antibody includes a detectable label.
6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said neoplastic disease is selected from the group consisting of malignant melanoma, breast ductal carcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma, prostate cancer and endometrial cancer.
7. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said sample is a human tissue sample.
8. The method according to claim 2 , wherein said sample comprises a lymph node.
9. A method of diagnosing growth characteristics of a tumor in an organism, the method comprising:
(a) contacting a tumor sample from the organism with an antibody that specifically binds human VEGF-D;
(b) measuring amount of unprocessed full-length VEGF-D polypeptide having a molecular weight of approximately (˜)53 K in said sample; and
(c) diagnosing growth characteristics of the neoplastic disease from the amount of the VEGF-D having a molecular weight of approximately (˜)53 K measured in step (b), wherein increased unprocessed full-length VEGF-D having a molecular weight of approximately (˜)53 K in said sample correlates with increased tumor growth or metastatic risk.
10. The method of claim 9 , wherein the antibody is a monoclonal antibody.
11. The method of claim 9 , wherein the antibody includes a detectable label.