tamoxifen gel stops breast cancer growth without causing dangerous side effects -
A tamoxifen gel form applied on the breasts of women with cancer of the noninvasive breast reduces the growth of cancer cells to the same degree as the drug is taken orally, but with fewer side effects that prevent some women taking it, according to new research Medicine- Northwestern.
Tamoxifen is an oral drug that is used for breast cancer prevention and treatment of non-invasive breast cancer and invasive cancer
Since the drug is absorbed by the skin directly into the breast tissue, the drug levels in the blood were much lower as possible, which reduces potentially dangerous side effects. - Blood clots and uterine cancer.
The gel was tested on women diagnosed with noninvasive cancer carcinoma in situ (DCIS), in which abnormal cells multiply and form a growth in a milk duct. Because of potential side effects, many women with DCIS are reluctant to take the oral tamoxifen after treatment with breastfeeding saving surgery and radiation, even if the drug effectively prevent DCIS recurrence and reduces the risk of future new breast cancer.
The document was published July 15 in the journal Clinical Cancer Research .
"Delivering the drug if a gel, if proven effective in larger trials, could replace oral tamoxifen for breast cancer prevention and DCIS and encourage many more women to take" said lead author Seema Khan, MD, surgical oncologist at Northwestern Medicine-. "for breast cancer prevention and DCIS therapy, the concentrations of effective drugs are needed in the breast. For these women, moving from top-level drugs cause collateral damage. "
Khan is Professor of Surgery and Professor Bluhm Family Research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine cancer. It is also a surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and co-leader of the breast cancer program at the Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern Robert H. University
"minimized exposure to gel the rest of the body and concentrate the drug in the chest where it is needed, "said Khan. "There was very little drug in the blood which should prevent the formation of potential blood clots and a higher risk of uterine cancer."
Women who have completed surgery and radiation are given oral tamoxifen for five years to reduce the risk of recurrent DCIS in the same place and new breast cancer appearing elsewhere in the same breast or the other breast. Tamoxifen is an anti-estrogen treatment for a type of breast cancer that require estrogen to grow.
Khan and his colleagues conducted a clinical phase II study to compare the effects of frost, 4-OHT, with oral tamoxifen. They found after six to 10 weeks of application of the gel that the reduction of a marker for cancer cell growth, Ki-67, in breast tissue was similar to that of tamoxifen orally. The scientists also found equal amounts of 4-OHT present in the breast tissue of patients who used the gel or took oral medication, but the levels of 4-OHT blood were more than five times lower in people who used the gel.
reducing the levels of 4-OHT in the blood was also correlated with a reduction in proteins that cause blood clots.
The study included 26 women, aged 45 to 86 who had been diagnosed with DCIS that was sensitive to estrogen (DCIS of estrogen receptor-positive). Half of the women received the gel, they applied daily, and half of the oral drug, which they took every day.
The gel application may also be more effective for some women. oral tamoxifen does not allow all women who take it because it must be activated in the liver by specific enzymes and about a third of women lack these enzymes, Khan said. These women can not receive full benefits of the pill.
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