Description

The underlying themes of Dr. Ruoslahti's work are tumor vasculature, metastasis and the use of targeted nanoparticles in cancer diagnosis and treatment. Tumors, like other tissues, contain both blood vessels and lymphatic vessels. A tumor needs blood vessels to be able to grow, and destroying tumor blood vessels is the basis of a promising new cancer therapy. Lymphatic vessels are not needed for tumor growth, but like blood vessels, the lymphatics are an important conduit of distant metastasis.