Modern Health Observation

A team of scientists from Queen Medical Center, Foundation NHS University Hospital of Nottingham, UK, have discovered that a family of drugs used to combat high blood pressure, beta-blockers, can help stop cancer metastasis breast tumor that causes the spread to other parts of the body.

The results of this research, which were presented at the European Conference on Breast Cancer held in Barcelona, in patients treated with these drugs – which work by blocking hormones that allow the spread of cancer cells – is reduced in a “significant” metastasis and thus, improved survival compared with those who did not.

The study, carried out in collaboration with experts from the University of Witten (Germany), had a total of 466 breast cancer patients were divided into three groups: those that were already under treatment for hypertension with beta -blockers, those treated with other hypertension drugs, and those not suffering from hypertension and therefore did not take treatment for it.

Thus, in the group of patients taking beta-blockers, of 43 patients, was where a significant reduction in both metastasis and local recurrence. In these patients also showed a 71 percent reduction in risk of death from breast cancer compared with other groups.

Moreover, as explained Dr Des Powe, author of the study, they detected the presence of a beta-receptor blockers, beta-2AR, which could be a biomarker to predict clinical response to treatment with these drugs, although “not a direct correlation between the presence of this receptor and response to treatment. ”

Previous studies had shown that beta-blockers act against various cancers, because high levels of stress hormones present in the tumor increased cell proliferation and migration of the same (movement of cells to other areas of the body).

“These effects induced by the stress hormones norepinephrine and epinephrine, acting on specific target receptors similar to a key in a lock,” said Powe, who said that this last finding has tried to “translate these laboratory findings to research clinic.”

The next step is to investigate the dose and side effects in future clinical trials, as well as “to be seen whether they could administer beta-blockers as an adjunct to therapies for breast cancer already exist, using a well-established drug , safe and cheap.”

photo source: http://topnews.in/