Angiogenesis in joint disease: The need for clinical data

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a widely studied inflammatory joint disease which impacts hugely on patients quality of life. The challenge remains to improve on current treatments, such as TNF inhibitors, which despite their unquestionable clinical success, are associated with increased infection risk and are not effective in all patients. There are certain similarities between RA and solid tumors, such as the presence of inflammatory cells and cytokines, hypoxia, invasiveness and excessive cellular proliferation. Inhibition of VEGF has proved to be a huge step forward in the treatment of many cancers. This successful clinical development of angiogenesis inhibitors for other indications has prompted interest in whether a similar approach might be used for RA. This review discusses why angiogenesis is a feature of RA and the lessons learnt from disease models for future therapeutic approaches, particularly targeting VEGF. © 2010 Future Medicine Ltd