Prostate cancer kills over 10,000 men a year in Britain alone but new research suggests that a drug originally intended for treating obesity, could be turned into a treatment for the deadly form of cancer.
Dr Ian Mills and his research team from Cambridge University found that tumour cells in the prostate require a specific enzyme to function as well as grow. But by stopping the production of this enzyme, they showed that the growth can be slowed down and even reversed. The hope is to effectively do so by using a trial obesity drug called STO 609 which they found inhibits the enzyme and essentially starves the cancer cells. However, the new drug would not be seen as a cure as yet but rather a management.
“Prostate cancer is a slow growing cancer and if you can slow it down even further you can turn it from a fatal condition to a chronic one that can be managed.” Dr. Mill said in the published work, giving hope to over 36,000 men who are affected each year in managing the disease. But he was optimistic about further possible inroads into treating the form of cancer. “[...] importantly we’ve shown that blocking one of these genes will starve the cancer cells of vital nutrients – and reduce tumour size and spread of the disease. More research to understand how prostate cancer cells generate could open up new routes to detect and treat the disease.”
Dr Lesley Walker director of Cancer Research UK greeted the new research with equal optimism and commented on its value. “This important study shows that investigating the way prostate cancer cells use and generate energy could provide a promising new route to search for ways to detect and treat the disease.” she said.
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