New Hope in the Fight Against Prostate Cancer

New research, being presented at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting, has identified two widely known prescription drugs—Lipitor and Celebrex—that may be of use in controlling prostate cancer. Lipitor is typically used to lower cholesterol, while Celebrex is an anti-inflammatory medication. Used separately or together, these two drugs just might stop early prostrate cancer before it becomes deadly.

This study was conducted on mice, so the idea is not ready yet for clinical use, but the experts say preliminary results look very promising. Dr. K. Scott Coffield, a professor of surgery at Texas A&M said that the scientists need to come up with the molecular mechanics and then take it back to the clinical trials. Dr. Ronald Ennis, director of radiation oncology at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, added that the results are very intriguing at this point but it's not enough to start recommending the medications for people who do not need them for other reasons.

Prostate cancer is found to be the second leading cancer killer in men in the United States today. Prostate tumors, in the early stages, depend on male hormones such as testosterone to grow. Unfortunately, early treatment typically interferes with these hormones resulting in the therapies eventually losing their effectiveness. The early tumors are dependent on male hormones and typically more aggressive than later tumors that don't rely on those same hormones.

Studies have shown that statins and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs may be able to stop the progression from an early cancer to a later more aggressive cancer. This study focused on delaying the progression of an androgen-dependent tumor to an androgen-independent tumor, which would allow doctors more time to administer anti-hormone therapy. Anti-androgen therapy has been shown as a less toxic therapy as opposed to many other cancer therapies, as are Lipitor and Celebrex.

In this study, the scientists first cultured prostate tumors in mice. They then added in either Liptor or Celebrex, and then the combination of the two prescriptions. All three approaches were shown to inhibit the growth of the cancer. The team then found that the combination of the Lipitor and Celebrex at lower doses when given individually resulted in a much greater effect. The senior author of the study, Allen Conney, said the prescriptions had a pretty substantial effect with the combination of the two and that they were hoping that it could be extrapolated to humans.

At this time, it is still unclear why Lipitor and Celebrex are having this effect on the prostate tumors. Dr. Ennis doubted it was an issue of cholesterol. "Statins as a group must have another effect beyond lowering cholesterol," he said. "They're known to have some anti-inflammatory effects but what they're doing to cancer isn't known yet. Once we figure that out, we may be able to develop better drugs that do the same thing." He also added, "That's very exciting but now yet enough to start prescribing this for prostate cancer."