Antidepressants ‘STOP prostate cancer spreading to the bones – making it less likely to kill’
The "old" antidepressant clorgyline was found to stop the disease spreading to the bones, which it does in nine in 10 cases
ANTIDEPRESSANTS could be key to beating prostate cancer, experts have revealed.
They found an "old" drug helped stop the disease spreading to the bones - a major cause of death in those men diagnosed with the most common form of male cancer.
In nine out of 10 fatal cases of prostate cancer, the disease spreads to the bones.
Now, a team of scientists believe they have discovered exactly how the cancer cells are able to hijack the body's bone maintenance system.
Having made the discovery, Dr Jason Wu, and his team at Washington State University found a known antidepressant drug, used in research, can halt the process.
"Our findings provide a rationale to pursue the use of these 'old' antidepressant drugs to benefit late-stage prostate cancer patients with signs and symptoms of metastasis," he said.
Prostate cancer is the most common form of the disease in men, and more than 47,000 cases are diagnosed every year in the UK - that's 130 men a day, according to Prostate Cancer UK.
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One in eight men will get the disease in their lifetime, and more than 11,000 lose their lives each year to the disease.
The researchers infected mice with human prostate cancer cells.
They were then able to identify an enzyme called MAOA, which set in motion a series of events that makes it easier for diseased cells to invade and grow in bone.
They used several strains of human cancer in the mice, and noticed the same results.
"When we reduced this enzyme expression in prostate cancer cells, we found a lower prostate cancer bone metastasis," Dr Wu said.
"On the other hand, if we over express this enzyme in prostate cancer cells, we found increased bone metastasis in mice."
Metastasis is the medical word to describe when cancer has spread.
Dr Wu's team then tested the effect of a drug called clorgyline.
The drug stopped the enzyme signalling - the process that allows cancer cells to invade and spread.
Similar drugs are used clinically as antidepressants, Dr Wu and his team noted.
He added: "To be sure, there have been no clinical studies reporting a lower risk of prostate cancer in people currently taking antidepressants.
"Our studies provide promising results in mice, which merit further investigation, such as adjusting the formulation, dose and delivery route of MAOA inhibitors, prior to ultimate clinical application."
Dr Iain Frame, director of research at Prostate UK, welcomed the research, noting there is no cure for the disease and "not enough treatments".
But he urged caution.
"We are an incredibly long way off knowing whether drugs like this could put a stop to prostate cancer cells spreading to the bone in reality," he said.
"Many more years of research are needed before we could say with any confidence whether the ideas proposed here would actually make a difference to men."
The findings are published in the journal Cancer Cell.
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