Breast cancer drugs may put some cells into 'sleeper mode'

Breast cancer drugs may force some cancer cells into 'sleeper mode', allowing them to potentially come back to life years after initial treatment.

The research could open avenues for finding ways of keeping the cancer cells dormant for longer, or even potentially finding a way of awakening the cells so they can then be killed by the treatment.

The team studied human breast cancer cells in the laboratory and examined the effects of a group of breast cancer drugs called hormone treatments.

"For a long time scientists have debated whether hormone therapies - which are a very effective treatment and save millions of lives - work by killing breast cancer cells or whether the drugs flip them into a dormant 'sleeper' state," said the lead author of the study.

"This is an important question as hormone treatments are used on the majority of breast cancers. Our findings suggest the drugs may actually kill some cells and switch others into this sleeper state," she added.

"If we can unlock the secrets of these dormant cells, we may be able to find a way of preventing cancer coming back, either by holding the cells in permanent sleep mode, or be waking them up and killing them," she said.

In the study, the team studied around 50,000 human breast cancer single cells in the lab, and found that treating them with hormone treatment exposed a small proportion of them as being in a dormant state.


The 'sleeper cells' may also provide clues as to why some breast cancer cells become resistant to treatment, causing a patient's drugs to stop working, and their cancer to return, the researchers said.

Hormone therapies are used to treat a type of breast cancer called estrogen-receptor positive. These make up over 70 per cent of all breast cancers, and are fuelled by the hormone estrogen.

These cancers are usually treated with surgery to remove the tumour, followed by a course of targeted hormone therapy - usually either aromatase inhibitors or tamoxifen, which target estrogen receptors.

However, around 30 per cent of breast cancer patients taking hormone therapies see their cancer eventually return - sometimes as long as 20 years after treatment.

This returning cancer is usually metastatic, meaning it has spread around the body, and the tumours are often now resistant to medication.

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Women reveal the reasons they reject a preventive drug for breast cancer

Only around a fifth of women at higher risk of developing breast cancer think they need to take a drug proven to help prevent the disease, according to new research.

Around 72% said they were worried about the long-term effects of tamoxifen and 57% believed that the drug would give them unpleasant side-effects.

The researchers asked more than 400 healthy women at a higher-risk of breast cancer, from 20 centres across England, whether they thought they needed to take tamoxifen and their concerns about medication.

They discovered that almost a third (29%) of the women thought doctors prescribed too many medicines, and more than a third (35%) thought doctors would prescribe fewer drugs if they had more time. Around a quarter (24%) of the women had experienced bad reactions to medicines in the past.

Almost a quarter (24%) of the women thought people on medication should take regular breaks from the drugs; 23% said they were very sensitive to medicines and 17% believed natural remedies were safer than medicines.

In a follow-up questionnaire, answered by 250 of the women, researchers found that fewer than 15 per cent were taking tamoxifen despite having discussed preventive therapy with a healthcare professional. Women who believed the medication was less necessary and had more concerns about its use were less likely to be taking tamoxifen at follow-up.

Lead author said: "Women in our study were rightfully considering the potential harms and benefits of using preventive therapy. But some beliefs about the use of medicine were very negative. This appears to be putting some women off tamoxifen, despite its proven ability to help prevent breast cancer in the long term.

"We need to make sure health care professionals are adequately equipped to discuss the potential benefits and harms of preventive treatment with their patients so that women are well informed before deciding whether or not to take a drug."

A Dr. said: "It's understandable that women considering taking a new medicine might have some concerns and that, for some, it won't be the right option. There are some potential side effects with tamoxifen, and other medications that can help prevent cancer, but it's vital that they have all the information, so they can make the best choice for them. If women in this situation have any questions or want more information, they should discuss with doctors and nurses to know all the prod and cons of taking tamoxifen.

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Here's why women reject preventive drugs for breast cancer

According to a recent study, only some women who are at higher risk of developing breast cancer think they need to take a drug proven to help prevent the disease. The researchers, asked more than 400 women at a higher risk of breast cancer, whether they thought they needed to take tamoxifen and their concerns about medication.

Around 72 per cent said that they were worried about the long-term effects of tamoxifen and 57 per cent believed that the drug would give them unpleasant side-effects.

The researchers found that almost 29 per cent of women thought doctors prescribed too many medicines, and more than 35 per cent thought that the doctors would prescribe fewer drugs if they had more time. Around a quarter 24 per cent of them had experienced bad reactions to medicines in the past.

Almost 24 per cent of women thought people on medication should take regular breaks from the prescribed drugs while 23 per cent said that they were very sensitive to medicines and 17 per cent believed that the natural remedies were safer than medicines.

In a follow-up questionnaire, answered by 250 women, researchers found that fewer than 15 per cent were taking tamoxifen, despite having discussed preventive therapy with a healthcare professional. Women who believed that the medication was less necessary and had more concerns about its use were less likely to be taking prescriptions.

"Women in our study were rightfully considering the potential harms and benefits of using preventive therapy. But some beliefs about the use of medicine were very negative. This appears to be putting some women off tamoxifen, despite its proven ability to help prevent breast cancer in the long term," said the lead author of the study.

There are some potential side effects of breast cancer medications, but it's vital that women have all the information, so they can make the best choice for them. 

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Progesterone can treat breast cancer

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FOR CROCHET DESIGNS- http://My Crochet Creations.blogspot.com/A study shows that breast cancer patients can benefit from having the cheap and widely-available female hormone progesterone added to their treatment.

Tumors fuelled by the female hormone estrogen are treated with drugs like tamoxifen to block estrogen receptors, which cause cancer cells to grow.

Women whose tumors have progesterone receptors as well are known to have a better outlook, but scientists for decades could not pinpoint why, said the study that appeared in the journal Nature.

Now, a team of scientists has revealed how the progesterone receptor 'talks to' the estrogen receptor in breast cancer cells to change their behavior, ultimately slowing down tumor growth.

"We have used cutting-edge technology to tease out the crucial role that progesterone receptors play in breast cancer - a mystery that has baffled scientists for many years," said lead author Jason Carroll from at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute.

"This research helps explain why some breast cancer patients have a better outlook," Carroll said.

"This study in the cells shows how a cheap, safe, and widely available drug could potentially improve treatment for around half of all breast cancer patients," concluded Emma Smith, senior science communication officer at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute.  

Night light exposure could make breast cancer tumors tamoxifen resistant

Tamoxifen is an estrogen-blocking medication typically used to treat breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. But new research conducted in rats suggests exposure to dim light at night - as little as that coming in a window from a street light - suppresses melatonin production, making tumors resistant to the drug.


The study, led by Prof. Steven M. Hill of Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, LA, is published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
"Our levels of melatonin are not determined by sleep, as many people think," explains Prof. Hill. "It is actually the darkness that is important. During the night, if you sleep in a brightly lit room, your melatonin levels may be inhibited; however, if you are in the dark but cannot sleep, your melatonin levels will rise normally."

He and his team note that disruption of circadian rhythms by night shift work or disturbed sleep could result in an increased risk of breast cancer and other diseases. For patients with hormone receptor-positive breast cancer, Prof. Hill adds that tamoxifen resistance "is a growing problem."

"Our data, although they were generated in rats, have potential implications for the large number of patients with breast cancer who are being treated with tamoxifen, because they suggest that nighttime exposure to light, even dim light, could cause their tumors to become resistant to the drug by suppressing melatonin production," he says.

Nighttime melatonin supplement resulted in regressed tumors

To conduct their study, the researchers observed rats with human breast tumors that were living in either normal light and dark conditions - which involved 12 hours of light and 12 hours of complete darkness - or alternative conditions - 12 hours of normal light and 12 hours of dim light.


The rats who were living under normal conditions had blood melatonin levels that rose during the dark period and fell again during the light period. However, the rats living in the alternative conditions had melatonin levels that remained low during the light/dark cycle.

Compared with the rats living in normal conditions, the rats living in the dim night light conditions had tumour growth that was 2.6-fold times faster.

Additionally, the team found that the rats living in the dim night light had tumors that were completely resistant to tamoxifen, while the rats living in normal conditions had tumors that significantly regressed.
However, the team also found that when given a nighttime melatonin supplement, the tumors of the rats living in dim night light conditions likewise regressed.
"These data suggest that, in the not-too-distant future, it may be possible to combine melatonin and tamoxifen," says Prof. Hill. "However, before this is done we would need to identify the optimal times of day to give the two because if the timing between the two is off, the advantage of giving them in combination may be lost."
He also notes that their study does not reveal how much light exposure is needed to decrease nighttime melatonin production, resulting in tamoxifen resistance in humans, "but we think that it could be as little as the amount of light that comes in the bedroom window from a street light."
Though melatonin supplements can be purchased over the counter, Prof. Hill cautions that their research is not yet at the point where he and his team can recommend that breast cancer patients on tamoxifen take melatonin:

"Melatonin is produced by our bodies at a very specific time of day, exclusively during darkness at night, and taking melatonin supplements at the wrong time of day would potentially disrupt the circadian system, particularly the natural melatonin cycle, which may, in itself, paradoxically impair breast cancer responsiveness to tamoxifen."

The team is now conducting further studies to investigate how much light exposure suppresses nighttime melatonin production in humans to the point where it would make tumors tamoxifen-resistant.

Medical News Today recently reported on a study that suggested the gel form of tamoxifen is just as effective as the oral form, with fewer side effects.

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Breast cancer drug toxic to brain cells and central nervous system

Researchers have revealed that the breast cancer drug tamoxifen is toxic to cells of the brain and central nervous system, and produces mental fogginess similar to "chemo brain."

Corresponding author  said that it is exciting to potentially be able to prevent a toxic reaction to one of the oldest and most widely used breast cancer medications on the market.

Although tamoxifen is relatively benign compared to most cancer treatments, it nonetheless produces troubling side effects in a subset of the large number of people who take it.

By studying tamoxifen's impact on central nervous system cell populations and then screening a library of 1,040 compounds already in clinical use or clinical trials, his team identified a substance known as AZD6244, and showed that it essentially eliminated tamoxifen-induced killing of brain cells in mice.

The team first identified central nervous system (CNS) cells that are most vulnerable to tamoxifen toxicity. Chief among these were oligodendrocyte-type 2 astrocyte progenitor cells (O-2A/OPCs), cells that are essential for making the insulating sheaths (called myelin) required for nerve cells to work properly.

Exposure to clinically relevant levels of tamoxifen for 48 hours killed more than 75 percent of these cells.

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