The combination of a cholesterol-lowering drug, Bezafibrate, and a
contraceptive steroid, Medroxyprogesterone Acetate, could be an
effective, non-toxic treatment for a range of cancers, researchers at
the University of Birmingham have found.
Early stage clinical trials of the drugs in elderly patients with acute myeloid leukaemia
(AML) have shown promising results, with survival three months longer
on average than standard palliative care. The combination, known as BaP,
has also been used alongside chemotherapy to successfully treat
children with Burkitt's lymphoma (BL), the most common childhood cancer
in Eastern Africa.
Until now it was uncertain whether the activity of the drugs against
these two very different blood cancers was mediated by a common
mechanism or by different effects in each cancer type.
The scientists, who were funded by Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, used state of the art technology to interrogate the drug's
effects on the metabolism and chemical make-up of AML and BL cells and
found that in both cell types the drugs block an enzyme crucial to the
production of fatty acids, which cancer cells need to grow and multiply.
They also demonstrated that the ability of BaP treatment to deactivate
this enzyme, called stearoyl CoA desaturase, was what prompted cancer
cells to die.
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