Zurich/Basel (AWP/ATS) – One of the oldest drugs for the heart, digoxin, could help prevent the formation of metastases in breast cancer. According to a study by the Zurich EPF, it indeed reduces the clusters of tumor cells which circulate in the blood.
Scientists from the Federal Polytechnic School of Zurich (EPFZ), university hospitals in Basel and Zurich as well as the Cantonal Hospital in Basel -Campagne have discovered that this cardiac drug based on digitalin – formerly extracted from digital – could also be effective in the context of breast cancer.
The authors of this study published on Friday in the journal Nature Medicine have carried out a large screening, systematically testing more than 2,400 different substances in cell cultures in recent years in order to find active substances against clusters of cancer cells from the primary tumor and circulating in the blood.
These cells (in English: Circulating Tumor Cell/CTC) can regroup in small clusters (clusters) and set up in other organs. This is the starting point for the formation of metastases.
“The formation of metastases in breast cancer depends on the CTC clusters,” said the study manager, Nicola Aceto, professor of molecular oncology at the EPFZ, quoted in a press release from the Haute École.
Significant reduction
A first clinical study was conducted. Nine patients with metastatic breast cancer have received low -dose and safe digoxin for a week. Result: the number of cells per cluster has decreased significantly, on average by 2.2 cells.
Given the typical size of these clusters – up to a dozen cells – that meant a clear reduction in the risk of metastases. The smaller these clusters, the less they are able to produce metastases successfully.
-Experts have also managed to elucidate the underlying mechanism: the Achilles heel of CTC clusters are sodium and potassium pumps which are in tumor cell membranes and which are responsible for the transport of sodium out of cells and potassium in cells.
Digoxine blocks these pumps and thus removes the exchange of ions. The cells therefore absorb more calcium from the outside of the cell membrane, which weakens the cohesion of clusters of cancer cells, which are disintegration.
Tested on other cancers
Laboratory trials have already been launched on other cancer diseases which are particularly dangerous due to the formation of metastases: prostate, colon, pancreas and melanoma cancers.
“This study must be considered as a validation of principle showing that it is possible to interrupt the CTC clusters,” Keystone-ATS Nicola Aceto told the KEYSTONE-ACT. To check if this approach really allows you to prevent metastases, you must first develop more effective and easier to dose drugs.
Digoxin has been used since about 1930 as an effective first medication for the treatment of chronic heart failure. Meanwhile, digital-based preparations are no longer used because of the possible side effects.
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