Nitroglycerin can stop prostate cancer tumour growth, claims Queens study

Nitroglycerin, the widely used explosive substance in dynamites etc, can treat prostate cancer, according to a new study.

Very low doses of nitroglycerin may slow the growth or even stop the progression of Treatment of prostate cancer without the severe side effects of current treatments, found a clinical trial conducted by Queen’s University researchers of Canada.

Low doses of nitroglycerin was studied in a 24-month, Phase II study targeted 29 men with increasing levels of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) following prostate surgery or radiation.

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is the commonly used diagnostic test to detect prostate cancer.

This trial was based on pre-clinical research carried out at Queen’s. the Queen’s researchers  showed nitric oxide plays an important role in prostate tumor progression and low-dose nitroglycerin is capable of controlling this process.

The men were treated with a low-dose, slow-release nitroglycerin skin patches NOVade. The skin patches NOVade were devoloped by Nometics Inc of Canada.

When the researchers measured their PSA levels, almost all the 17 patients who completed the study showed a stabilization or decrease in the rate of cancer progression.

Nitroglycerin has been used  for more than a century to treat angina.

Results of the Queen’s University study study conducted by researchers Robert Siemens, Jeremy Heaton, Michael Adams, Jun Kawakami and Charles Graham, appeared in a recent issue of the journal Urology.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed in approximately 235,000 men per year in the United States and 20,700 in Canada. Of patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy and/or radiation treatment, it is estimated that 30 to 50 percent will experience a recurrence of cancer.

Of the 17 patients who completed the study, all but one showed a stabilization or decrease in the rate of cancer progression, as measured by their PSA Doubling Time.

“We were very excited to see a significant slowing in the progression of the disease as evidenced by the men’s PSA levels, and to see this result in many of the men who completed the study,” Dr. Robert Siemens of Queen’s Department of Urology, who led the study, was quoted as saying.

Prostate cancer is diagnosed in approximately 235,000 men per year in the United States and 20,700 in Canada. Of patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy and/or radiation treatment, it is estimated that 30 to 50 percent will experience a recurrence of cancer.

Results of the study, conducted by Queen’s University researchers Robert Siemens, Jeremy Heaton, Michael Adams, Jun Kawakami and Charles Graham, appeared in a recent issue of the journal Urology.

Prostate cancer is the most common non-skin cancer in the United States and the third most common cancer worldwide.Prostate cancer is diagnosed in approximately 235,000 men per year in the United States and 20,700 in Canada (projected market size of $4B worldwide). Of patients who have undergone radical prostatectomy and/or radiation treatment, it is estimated that 30-50% will experience ‘biochemical failure’.

Nometics Inc. is a private specialty pharmaceutical company that is focused on the treatment of cancer through the restoration of the nitric oxide signalling pathway.

Nometics Inc. has demonstrated that NOVade addresses hypoxia in cancer – a condition caused by locally advanced tumours that causes disease progression through metastasis, increased invasiveness and resistance to treatment.

Evidence generated in laboratories at Queen’s University has demonstrated the capacity of low-dose nitric oxide donors (such as NOVade) to reverse the effects of hypoxia. NOVade effects a phenotype change in cancer cells, but does not spuriously suppress PSA. NOVade has been shown to work in numerous types of cancer and alone or in combination with other agents.