February 4, 2001 Supply-Side Oncology The search for a compound
that restricts blood flow to tumors may offer new hope in the
treatment of cancer.  Related Link   • First Chapter: 'Dr.
Folkman's War'      Angiogenesis and the Struggle to Defeat
Cancer.     By Robert Cooke.     Illustrated. 366 pp. New York:
Random House. $25.95.      Forty years ago, a 28-year-old
surgeon named Judah Folkman was tinkering in a laboratory at the
National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., where he'd been
assigned (and finished ahead of schedule) the task of inventing
a blood substitute that could be used under battle conditions.
Almost on a lark, he found himself exploring the biology of
cancer cells. ''Sure,'' his commanding officer said, ''work on
anything you want. Just don't tell anyone.'' And so one
afternoon Folkman made the observation that would shape the rest
of his life: the tumors he was growing stopped once they reached
a specific size, about one millimeter in diameter, no bigger
than the tip of a pencil.