Early and ‘promising’ results into the effectiveness of prescribing common drugs to prevent the spread of breast cancer have been unveiled by British scientists to mark a new awareness campaign.
The Cancer Research UK scientists say they have hopes that beta-blockers can play a part in treating the disease.
The presentation at the Royal Society of Medicine helped to launch the annual Breast Cancer Awareness month this month.
Dr Des Powe, from Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, has worked with researchers in Belfast and Germany on a Cancer Research UK-funded project to find out whether women who take beta-blockers – drugs routinely used to treat high blood pressure and anxiety – before and during their breast cancer treatment are less likely to have a cancer recurrence and if they survive for longer.
The first research into beta-blockers and breast cancer was published in Oncotarget, when it was revealed that out of 466 breast cancer patients, those taking beta blockers before their operation for breast cancer were less likely to die several years after their treatment.
This latest research is built on early findings in the laboratory that showed a biological mechanism by which beta-blockers can stop cells moving and cancer from spreading.
Dr Powe said: “It is absolutely crucial to conquer cancer spread if we are to really improve breast cancer survival as this problem causes nearly all deaths from the disease.
“This study will be sufficiently large to determine whether we should progress to clinical trials and identify which type of beta-blockers have the strongest effect.”
Dr Julie Sharp, senior science information manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “As beta-blockers are already a known drug this could be a very interesting development, which has the potential to save a large number of lives and we hope to have to see study results within the next year.”
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