Emily Chan, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, discusses the investigatory agent aflibercept, a vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-trap agent.

Aflibercept acts as a decoy receptor, which causes pro-angiogenic VEGFs to bind to its ligands rather than the correct VEGF receptors. Trapping VEGF with false receptors prevents tumor angiogenesis. Historically VEGF has proven to be an active target in colorectal cancer and is successfully inhibited at different points by other agents, such as bevacizumab.

Although aflibercept is not currently an approved agent promising data was released supporting its use in metastatic colorectal cancer at the 2011 ECCO/ESMO meeting. Multiple trials are currently underway looking at disease types that have demonstrated VEGF target efficacy.