Popular Drug Combo Stops Prostate Cancer
Reported April 15, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — The combination of the anti-inflammatory drug, Celebrex, and the cholesterol lowering medication, Lipitor, stops early stage prostate cancer from becoming aggressive and potentially fatal according to new research from the Rutgers University Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy in N.J.
When its in its early stages, prostate cancer cells depend on androgen hormones like testosterone to grow. Current treatment slows the production of testosterone or blocks its action on cancer cells. However, eventually the cancer cells become androgen-dependent, the treatment becomes ineffective and the cancer becomes more aggressive.
Researchers tried working with Celebrex and Lipitor separately and together on specially bred mice with prostate tumors under their skin.
Researchers report the combination dose of the two drugs had a more potent inhibiting effect on the formation of later stage tumors than either of them alone. The results from our study indicate that a combination of Lipitor and Celebrex may be an effective strategy for the prevention of prostate cancer progression from the first to the second stage, Xi Zheng, assistant research professor at Rutgers, was quoted as saying.
Clinical trials on humans are being planned at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in New Brunswick. If they go well, it would be five years until a treatment is available but researchers hope they can speed up the process.
If the trials show that the drug therapy does a good job of preventing the cancer from advancing, we wont need to worry about how to handle the more aggressive later stage cancer, Allen Conney, director of Rutgers Susan Lehman Cullman Laboratory for Cancer Research, was quoted as saying. This is something that we hope is going to save lives.
SOURCE: Presented at the American Association of Cancer Researchs Annual Meeting in San Diego, Calif., April 12-16, 2008