At the invitation of professor GENG Mei-yu , professor Robert S. Kerbel from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, visited the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica on 6th July 2010, and delivered a lecture entitled “heterogeneous impact of antiangiogenic drugs and/or metronomic chemotherapy on micro- vs macroscopic metastatic disease”.

At present, antiangiogenic drugs are facing a big challenge in the treatment of cancer, although it can significantly inhibit the growth of tumor cells in a short term, it may enhance the metastatic ability of cancer cells. Prof. Rober S. Kerbel delivered a wonderful lecture entitled as “heterogeneous impact of antiangiogenic drugs and/or metronomic chemotherapy on micro- vs. macroscopic metastatic disease”, and he proposed the conception of “metronomic chemotherapy”, that is an orally continuous low dose of chemotherapy. Metronomic chemotherapy is based on the hypothesis of anti-tumor angiogenesis. This hypothesis proposes that, endothelial cells of tumor newly formed vessels during their division are very sensitive to low dose of chemotherapy. Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) are also sensitive to this continuous low dose of chemotherapy, and metronomic chemotherapy may induce the synthesis of angiogenesis inhibitor, such as thrombospondin-1.

Metronomic chemotherapy has many advantages. It has low acute toxic responses, oral administration can avoid of intravenous given inconvenience, and it can be given in combination with multiple other chemotherapy drugs for long term administration, etc. Kerbel demonstrated the efficacy of metronomic chemotherapy in many therapeutic cases with good/amazing clinical outcomes, which greatly interested the teachers and students, and a heated discussion followed the lecture.