Anti-angiogenic gene therapy with a combination of soluble Vascular Endothelial Growth Factors (sVEGFR) improves the efficacy of chemotherapy with paclitaxel for reducing ovarian cancer mean tumor volume (in cubic millimetres) as measured using magnetic resonance imaging. The study groups were: AdLacZ control, combination of AdsVEGFR-1, -2 and -3, combination of AdsVEGFR-1, -2, -3 and paclitaxel, bevacizumab monotherapy, paclitaxel monotherapy and carboplatin monotherapy. Effectiveness was assessed by survival time and surrogate measures such as sequential MRI, immunohistochemistry, microvessel density and tumor growth. Antiangiogenic gene therapy combined with paclitaxel significantly prolonged the mean survival compared to the controls and all other treatment groups (p=0.001). Tumors of the mice treated by gene therapy were significantly smaller than in the control group (p=0.021). The mean vascular density and total vascular area were also significantly smaller in the tumors of the gene therapy group (p=0.01).
