Cough Medicine
Ingredient Could Effectively Treat
Prostate Cancer, Study Shows ScienceDaily
(Dec. 21, 2008) — A study published December 18 in the
December issue of
the European medical journal Anticancer Research demonstrates
that an ingredient used in a
common cough suppressant may be useful in treating
advanced prostate cancer.
Researchers found that noscapine, which has been used in
cough medication for nearly 50
years, reduced tumor growth in mice by 60% and
limited the spread of tumors by 65%
without causing harmful side effects.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men
in the United States. The American
Cancer Society estimates that 186,320 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2008
and 28,660 will die from it. One man in 6 will get
prostate cancer during his lifetime.
Although slow-growing in most men, the cancer
is considered advanced when it spreads
beyond the prostate. There is no known
cure.
The laboratory study was a joint effort by Dr. Israel
Barken of the Prostate Cancer
Research and Educational Foundation, Moshe Rogosnitzky of MedInsight
Research
Institute, and Dr. Jack Geller of The University of California San Diego.
Noscapine has
previously been studied as a treatment for breast, ovarian, colon,
lung and brain cancer and
for various lymphomas, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and
melanoma. This study, however,
is the first to demonstrate its effectiveness in
treating prostate cancer.
Noscapine is a naturally-occurring substance, a
non-addictive derivative of opium. As a
natural substance, noscapine cannot be patented, which has limited
the potential for clinical
trials. Rogosnitzky notes that drug companies are
generally unwilling to underwrite expensive
clinical trials without being able to
recoup their investment. A synthetic derivative of
noscapine has been patented but has
not yet reached the clinical testing phase.
Since noscapine is approved for use in many countries
as a cough suppressant, however, it
is available to doctors to prescribe for other uses as well.
This common practice is known as
"off-label" prescription. Noscapine is increasingly
being used off-label to treat a variety of
cancers. Dr. Barken used noscapine to
treat a handful of prostate cancer patients before
retiring from clinical practice.
Encouraged by the success of these treatments, his foundation
funded the laboratory study
being reported in the December 2008 edition of Anticancer
Research.
As founder and medical director of the Prostate
Cancer Research and Educational
Foundation in San Diego, Dr. Barken is encouraging academic institutions
to follow up this
successful laboratory research with a human clinical trial. He has
pioneered a web-based
patient tracking system that will greatly reduce the cost of the
trial while cutting the time
necessary to complete the study. Using the web-based
tracking system will also allow
doctors outside the U.S. to enroll patients in the
research.
Rogosnitzky, director of research at MedInsight
Research Institute, points out the significant
advantages that noscapine could present as a treatment for
prostate cancer. "Noscapine is
effective without the unpleasant side effects
associated with other common prostate cancer
treatments. Because noscapine has been used
as a cough-suppressant for nearly half a
century, it already has an extensive
safety record. This pre-clinical study shows that the dose
used to effectively treat
prostate cancer in the animal model was also safe."
Hormone therapy and chemotherapy, along with
radiation and surgery, are currently used to
slow the progression of advanced prostate cancer. Side effects
resulting from these
treatments include impotence, incontinence, fatigue, anemia,
brittle bones, hair loss, reduced
appetite, nausea and diarrhea. No toxic side effects
were observed in the laboratory study
of noscapine.
Courtesy
of
http://www.sciencedaily.com
|
