A widely heralded but still experimental cancer-fighting compound may be used someday to prevent two other major killers of Americans: heart disease and stroke. That was the implication of a remarkable report published last week in the journal Circulation by a team of researchers from Dr. Judah Folkman's laboratory at the Children's Hospital in Boston.
The versatile compound is endostatin, a human protein that inhibits angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels in the body. In tests reported in 1997 by Folkman, a prominent cancer researcher who pioneered the study of angiogenesis, the drug had reduced and even eradicated tumors in...