Alpha Blockers Stop and Prevent Cervical Cancer in Mice

Reported November 11, 2009

(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Two FDA-approved drugs, one used to treat breast cancer and the other to treat osteoporosis, may eventually be used to stop cervical cancer in its tracks.

In a new study, researchers found two FDA-approved drugs -- fulvestrant and raloxifene, both drugs called ER alpha blockers -- eliminated cervical cancer in mice and cleared precancerous growths in the cervix and the vagina.

“We have begun to test whether the drugs are as effective in treating cervical cancer in human cells as they are in our mice," senior author Paul Lambert, of the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research and the UW-Madison Carbone Cancer Center, was quoted as saying.

Researchers used mice that were genetically engineered to carry human papilloma virus (HPV) 16. “Virtually all cervical cancers in women test positive for HPV 16," Lambert said.

Researchers tested the ER alpha blockers on HPV-positive mice with cervical cancer. After one month on the breast cancer drug fulvestrant, 11 of 13 mice lost all signs of the cancer. The osteoporosis drug raloxifene brought the same blocking effect. Both drugs prevented precancerous lesions from progressing to cancer.

The next step for researchers is to test the drugs on women's tissue samples after a cervical cancer surgery.

"We can't be sure how the science will translate from animals to humans, but we have faith in our mouse model," Lambert said. "There are many similarities in how cervical cancer develops and manifests itself in women and in mice."

SOURCE: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 9, 2009