ABSTRACT
The main weight of cancer therapy has always been toward the direct killing of the cell, and the more subtle approach to the prevention of spread or recurrence by manipulation of the coagulation mechanism has still not received acceptance by the clinician. The 1960s saw the first clinical use of anticoagulants of the coumarin type to deliberately treat cancer and inhibit growth and spread. In animals coumarin-type anticoagulants were shown to inhibit the locomotion of tumor cells. The coumarin-type drugs, in advanced disease by decreasing tumor growth rate, can decrease toxicity and the amount of treatment required or prevent recurrence in those patients who are tumor free after primary treatment by surgery, irradiation, or cytotoxic therapy. The discovery of the association of fibrin and tumor cells led to the study of both anticoagulants and fibrinolytic agents in cancer. Fibrinolytic agents destroyed leukemic cells in vivo, but not in vitro, and led to the production of cytotoxic antibody in patients.
