"Angiogenesis" — the creation of blood vessels — both good news and bad news. In the early 1970's, Dr. Judah Folkman proposed that since cancerous tumors generated blood vessels to feed themselves, stay alive and flourish, one possible cancer therapy would involve intercepting, or "turning off", the gene that causes angiogenesis.

But in a situation where the opposite is true, where you want to create or enhance blood flow, to combat the debilitating effects of vascular disease in the peripheral (leg) or coronary (heart) arteries, the ability to "turn on" the angiogenesis gene provides a potentially powerful harnessing of a natural process: the ability to "grow" new blood vessels.

The technique of delivering gene therapy to the heart is under development, but will probably be catheter-based. The genetic material itself is also being tested, and at the present the most promising seems to be VEGF, or Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor. Clinical trials are under way at a number of medical centers. For a look at results from the pioneering study, watch this video clip from our exclusive interview with the late Dr. Jeffrey Isner of St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. (Gene therapy pioneer, Dr. Jeffrey Isner, passed away on October 31, 2001, at the age of 53. Dr. Isner was one of the major contributors to knowledge in this field. He was in the midst of a major research study; he and his ground-breaking work will be sorely missed. )