Georgetown Researchers Find How Diabetes Drug Inhibits Breast Cancer

Georgetown University researchers report they have decoded the step-by-step process by which a new class of anti-diabetes drug inhibits growth of breast cancer.

The Georgetown researchers are now studying whether these anti-diabetes drugs -- called glitazones and marketed under the names Avandia and Actos -- could one day be effective anti-cancer drugs.

Taken by more than two million people with type 2 diabetes, glitazones bind to a particular target on a cell and in diabetics, reduce insulin resistance at the sites of insulin action in the muscle and liver.

Previous studies have also shown that glitazones also have the ability to inhibit tumor growth.

"This study shows for the first time a direct link between a gene causing breast and other cancers and a gene linked to diabetes and the production of fat cells," said Dr. Richard Pestell, director of Georgetown's Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Pestell and his colleagues describe in the journal Molecular and Cellular Biology a complex relationship that they believe may represent a key genetic alteration underlying the transition from normal breast tissue to breast cancer.

"The link between these cellular components may be a lynchpin in some cancers -- linking some cancers and metabolism directly. Potentially, we could be on the way to finding new therapeutic leads that would improve both diseases," Pestell said.

Other Sources: Molecular and Cellular Biology