(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A group of breast cancer drugs that had been deemed
ineffective might be able to help a sub-group of breast cancer patients after
all.
Researchers at Emory University School of Medicine discovered through laboratory
tests that hormones produced by adipocytes (fat cells) stimulate breast cancer
cells to migrate and invade surrounding healthy tissue. A group of drugs called
epithelial growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitors could block the stimulatory
effects of the hormones.
“This group of compounds was basically written off as far as breast cancer
goes,” senior author Dipali Sharma, Ph.D., assistant professor of
oncology/hematology at Emory University School of Medicine and Emory Winship
Cancer Institute, was quoted as saying.
Leptin, the hormone produced by fat calls, is found in abundance in obese
people. In addition to leptin, obese people also have high levels of
insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1).
“The influence of obesity on breast cancer is more pronounced because most of
the breast tissue is made of adipocytes,” Sharma was quoted as saying. “There is
an increasing amount of evidence for the importance of the environment
surrounding the tumor in spurring its growth.”
Although EGFR inhibitors were not found effective in the fight against breast
cancer for a large proportion of patients, but because of the ability of this
class of drug to block stimulatory effects of leptin and IGF-1 they may have a
positive effect on obese breast cancer patients who have a lot of these hormones
being released.
SOURCE: Cancer Research, 2008;68: 9712-9722
