Drug May Prevent Breast Cancer,Treat Post-Menopausal Vaginal Atrophy

A tamoxifen-like drug from UC Davis and Finnish researchers have now developed into clinical trials for the treatment of vaginal atrophy, may also help prevent breast cancer, two preliminary studies suggest.

The studies, based on research in a mouse model of human breast cancer, will be published in the November issue of the Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the December issue of Cancer Research.

"These reports point out that the prevention of breast cancer, another advantage of using ospemifine be," said Michael W. DeGregorio, a professor of medicine at UC Davis. "The results are very encouraging."

DeGregorio is senior author of the November and a contributing writer to the newspaper in December. He spent the last 20 years, developed in collaboration with Risto ospemifene Lammintausta CEO Hormos Medical Corp. in Turku, Finland.

Ospemifene is now of QuatRx Pharmaceuticals, an Ann Arbor, Mich.-based biopharmaceutical company that is recently merged with Hormos Medical Corp. The drug expected to enter Phase 3 clinical trials in the United States next year for the treatment of advanced " vaginal atrophy, a common disease in postmenopausal women.

Ospemifene is part of a class of drugs called selective estrogen receptor modulators. The well-known drug tamoxifen to prevent breast cancer in women at high risk of disease and raloxifene, currently used to prevent bone fractures in women with osteoporosis, which belong to the same class.

The comparison Journal of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of steroids to inhibit DeGregorio and his colleagues at UC Davis, the ability of ospemifene, tamoxifen and raloxifene for breast cancer in mice exposed to carcinogens. Ospemifene and tamoxifen both inhibited breast cancer development in mice ospemifene group were 95 percent less likely than mice in the group fight against breast cancer develops. Raloxifene has no such effect. The study is available online in advance of its publication in print www.sciencedirect.com.

The second study, which reports conducted by Jeffrey P. Gregg, an associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UC Davis, that in a mouse model, tamoxifen and ospemifene the growth and progression of precancerous lesions of the breast that closely ductal in human carcinoma inhibited in situ. Both agents decreased the growth of lesions by reducing the rate of proliferation of precancerous cells.

The article is available online until the date of publication in print www.breast-cancer-research.com.

While similar, tamoxifen, raloxifene, and ospemifine variations in the chemical structure unique profiles that give them therapeutic. For example, raloxifene prevent bone fractures, but can also cause blood clots, hot flashes, insomnia and blood. Tamoxifen may suffer the risk of breast cancer in women at high risk to reduce by half, but the drug also increases the risk of uterine cancer and may cause similar side effects than raloxifene.

In previous clinical studies, ospemifene appears to create a unique estrogen-like effect on the vagina, but a neutral effect on the endometrium or lining of the womb, and have no aggravation or initiation of hot flashes. The results of Phase 1 and Phase 2 trials in postmenopausal women in Finland carried out, appear in the journal Menopause in September 2003 and March 2005.

"Dr. Lammintausta and worked for many years to would find a drug that positive effects in healthy postmenopausal women, but it is absolutely safe," said DeGregorio. "We are pleased that this seems to be the case."

Decreased estrogen levels can have a coating thinner, less elastic and more fragile than the vagina. Known as vaginal atrophy, the problem affects 10-40 percent of women after menopause. Symptoms may include dryness, itching, burning, irritation, pain or pressure, light bleeding during sex. Estrogen creams, rings, patches or oral supplements are often prescribed to treat vaginal atrophy.

UC Davis Cancer Center is the only cancer of the National Institute designated cancer center serving the Central Valley and inland Northern California, an area the size of Pennsylvania. His research program on cancer consists of 180 scientists on three campuses: the UC Davis Medical Center campus in Sacramento, the UC Davis campus in Davis, California, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.