(Press-News.org) ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A drug commonly used to treat depression and anxiety disorder was effective at reducing joint and muscle pain associated with a breast cancer treatment, according to a study from the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The women in the study were taking aromatase inhibitors, a type of drug designed to block the production of estrogen, which fuels some breast cancers. About half of women taking these drugs experience aches and pains in their joints and muscles that cannot be adequately relieved by over-the-counter painkillers. Up to 20 percent of these women will stop taking an aromatase inhibitor because of this pain.
"Since women typically take these drugs for five years, it is important that the side effects not interfere too much with their quality of life, or they will be less likely to continue taking the medicine, which may lead to a greater chance of their breast cancer returning," says study author N. Lynn Henry, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School.
Henry will present the initial results of the study Dec. 11 at the 33rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium.
The study looked at the drug duloxetine, or Cymbalta, which is used to treat depression and generalized anxiety disorder. It's also been shown to work in multiple other chronic pain conditions, such as fibromyalgia and, more recently, osteoarthritis. It is believed to decrease pain through its actions in the central nervous system.
Of 29 patients evaluated, nearly three-quarters reported that their pain had decreased by at least 30 percent. On average, after eight weeks of treatment, pain scores declined 61 percent. Only one in five patients stopped taking duloxetine because of side effects.
"Duloxetine appears to be effective at reducing the muscle and joint pain many women experience from aromatase inhibitors, with only mild additional side effects," Henry says.
The researchers are planning a randomized, controlled trial comparing duloxetine to placebo. Henry is also doing research looking at the effect of aromatase inhibitors on pain perception to better understand why women develop pain.
###
Breast cancer statistics: 209,060 Americans will be diagnosed with breast cancer this year and 40,230 will die from the disease, according to the American Cancer Society
Additional U-M authors: Mousumi Banerjee, Ph.D., Dorothy Blossom, Max Wicha, M.D., Catherine Van Poznak, M.D., Jeffrey Smerage, M.D., Ph.D., Anne Schott, M.D., Jennifer Griggs, M.D., M.P.H., and Daniel Hayes, M.D.
Funding: Supported by an Investigator Initiated Grant from Lilly Pharmaceuticals
Disclosure: None
Reference: 33rd Annual San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, Dec. 8-12, 2010, San Antonio, Texas
Resources:
U-M Cancer AnswerLine, 800-865-1125
U-M Comprehensive Cancer Center, www.mcancer.org
Clinical trials at U-M, www.UMClinicalStudies.org
END
Blocking fragments of the sugar molecule hyaluronan that triggers inflammation could be the key to robust healing and less scarring in deep wounds, Canadian researchers reported at the American Society for Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
In laboratory rats, the small peptide, named 15-1, which blocks fragments of the ubiquitous sugar molecule, hyaluronan, promoted wound healing, minimized scarring and forged stronger new tissue.
These effects did not occur in the untreated animals in the study, according to Cornelia Tölg, Ph.D., of the London (Ontario) ...
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), have identified components in pomegranate juice that seem to inhibit the movement of cancer cells and weaken their attraction to a chemical signal that has been shown to promote the metastasis of prostate cancer to the bone, according to a presentation today at the American Society for Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
The researchers in the UCR laboratory of Manuela Martins-Green, Ph.D., plan additional testing in an in vivo model for prostate cancer to determine dose-dependent effects and ...
Insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells have been generated from human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) directly isolated from human testicular tissue, researchers reported today at the American Association of Cell Biology 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
When grafted into diabetic mice that lacked a transplant-rejecting immune system, the bioengineered cells functioned much like somatic β-islet cells, the Georgetown University (GU) Medical Center researchers said.
By decreasing the animals' blood glucose levels, the human-derived islet cells demonstrated ...
PHILADELPHIA – Men with type 1 diabetes may be able to grow their own insulin-producing cells from their testicular tissue, say Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC) researchers who presented their findings today at the American Society of Cell Biology 50th annual meeting in Philadelphia.
Their laboratory and animal study is a proof of principle that human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) extracted from testicular tissue can morph into insulin-secreting beta islet cells normally found in the pancreas. And the researchers say they accomplished this feat without use ...
In the burgeoning field of nano-science there are now many ways of 'writing' molecular-scale messages on a surface, one molecule at a time. The trouble is that writing a molecule at a time takes a very long time.
"It is much better if the molecules can be persuaded to gather together and imprint an entire pattern simultaneously, by themselves. One such pattern is an indefinitely long line, which can then provide the basis for the ultimately thin molecular 'wire' required for nano-circuitry," says John Polanyi of the University of Toronto's Department of Chemistry, co- ...
Research published today identifies two genetic variants that increase the risk of developing endometriosis, a common gynaecological disease. The study provides clues to the origin of this often very painful condition, which has a significant impact on the quality of life of sufferers.
Details of the research, carried out at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and the Nuffield Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, University of Oxford; the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia, and Brigham; and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, ...
Simulations performed at Southwest Research Institute may explain how Saturn's majestic rings and icy inner moons formed following the collision of a Titan-sized satellite with the planet, according to a paper published in Nature magazine's Dec. 12 Advance Online Publication.
Saturn's rings are at present 90 to 95 percent water ice. Because dust and debris from rocky meteoroids have polluted the rings, the rings are believed to have consisted of pure ice when they formed. This composition is unusual compared to the approximately half-ice and half-rock mixture expected ...
CINCINNATI –For the first time, scientists have created functioning human intestinal tissue in the laboratory from pluripotent stem cells.
In a study posted online Dec. 12 by Nature, scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say their findings will open the door to unprecedented studies of human intestinal development, function and disease. The process is also a significant step toward generating intestinal tissue for transplantation, researchers say.
"This is the first study to demonstrate that human pluripotent stem cells in a petri dish can be ...
A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has developed a faster way to engineer synthetic enzymes that target specific DNA sequences for inactivation, repair or alteration. The report from the MGH Molecular Pathology Unit, being published online in Nature Methods, describes a highly effective but less labor-intensive way to generate powerful tools called zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs).
"With our approach, called context-dependent assembly, any scientist can use either standard molecular biology techniques or commercial DNA synthesis to design ZFNs ...
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have pinpointed a protein that compromises the kidney's filtering ability, causing nephrotic syndrome, and demonstrated that a naturally occurring precursor of an acid in the body offers potential for treating some forms of the condition.
The research was published online Dec. 12 in Nature Medicine.
"This is a major breakthrough in understanding the development and treatment of kidney disease associated with proteinuria, the leakage of protein in the urine," said the study's lead author Sumant Singh ...
