Tufted angioma

Children’s Hospital Boston is home to the world’s largest vascular anomalies center. When doctors in other states or other countries need help diagnosing or treating vascular anomalies like tufted angioma, they come to us.

Our database

We have seen and treated more children with tufted angioma than anywhere else in the world. And we’re constantly increasing our base of knowledge - physicians and researchers at the VAC are now reviewing our extensive database of all the known cases of tufted angioma and kaposiform hemangioendothelioma.

We’re actively evaluating the best therapies and studying long-term outcomes of kids with these tumors. As our database grows, it will help shine light on a widely misunderstood condition. More importantly, consolidating knowledge about treatment, side effects and outcomes in this database will help us treat your child more effectively.

Interferon therapy

Interferon therapy is an angiogenesis inhibitor to slow the growth of new blood vessels and cut off blood supply to your child’s tumor.

The whole idea that tumors are unable to grow beyond a certain size without a dedicated supply of blood was conceived by Judah Folkman, MD, former director of the Vascular Biology Program at Children’s.

These days, angiogenesis inhibitors and stimulators are powerful new weapons in the battle against tumors like KHE as well as a host of other illnesses, including cancer in children and adults.

Angiogenesis inhibitor therapy works on Folkman's principle that, rather than waging a toxic chemical and radiation battle with a tumor, doctors could starve it into submission by shutting down its blood supply.

Today, at least 50 angiogenesis inhibitors are in clinical trials around the world, and more than 1,000 laboratories in universities and industry are conducting angiogenesis research.

Read more about Folkman’s pioneering research.