NCI Denies Media Report It Failed to Replicate Endostatin Findings

BETHESDA, Md—In a rare public confrontation with the media, the National Cancer Institute denied a report in the Wall Street Journal that its scientists had failed to replicate the work of Judah Folkman, PhD, showing that endostatin, an antiangiogenesis compound, dramatically shrinks tumors in mice.

The NCI said that in February, two of its scientists conducted experiments in Dr. Folkman’s laboratory at Children’s Hospital, Boston that verified his previously published results. As a result of that work, the NCI said it decided to proceed with two phase I endostatin trials, one of which is now enrolling patients.

The Institute statement said that it had not conducted additional experiments with human or murine endostatin at any of its laboratories in Maryland, “meaning there have been no ‘failed’ laboratory studies with the material to be used in humans.” It noted that other experimenters had found that, in mice, human endostatin had caused “a marked inhibition of tumor growth, an indication that the human protein might also be effective in people".