Lab tests on cells and mice found that when Viagra was combined with powerful chemotherapy it not only decreased the size of tumours but also protected the heart at the same time. The US team are now planning to carry out clinical trials on patients to see if the results are just as successful.
Doxorubicin is a standard chemotherapy medicine that works by triggering cancer cells to commit suicide but its use is linked with irreversible heart damage – often occurring several years after treatment stops.
So researchers have been working over the past 15 years to find a drug that prevents this without compromising the effectiveness of doxorubicin.
Professor Rakesh Kukreja and colleagues say they have shown Viagra, known medically as sildenafil, enhances the drug’s anti-tumour qualities in prostate cancer while simultaneously alleviating the damage to the heart.
The combination also did not harm any healthy prostate cells, according to the findings published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Prof Kukreja, of Virginia Commonwealth University, said: “We believe sildenafil could be an excellent candidate for incorporation into cancer treatment protocols with the potential of enhancing the anti-tumour efficacy, while protecting the heart against both short term and long term damage from doxorubicin.”
Prof Kukreja said he is excited about the potential impact of the work and is keen to evaluate the combination in cancer patients.
He said: “My team and I are hoping to move the research forward to a clinical trial and plans are under way to do so.”
His laboratory is one of the first to explore the area of ‘pre-conditioning’ which involved treating mice with doses of sildenafil to increase therapeutic levels of nitric oxide in the heart.
This means the heart has an improved ability to produce nitric oxide which directly improves a patient’s outcome following a heart attack.
Generally, damage following a heart attack is related to an inability to recover from lack of oxygen.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/8028038/Viagra-could-treat-prostate-cancer.html
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