A new study reveals a breast cancer treatment that includes the inexpensive and widely-available female hormone progesterone can be effective. Tumor growth slowed down by about 50 percent, and around half of cancer victims could benefit from the medication. Until now scientists were uncertain why hormone therapy using such drugs produced positive results in the ongoing search for a breast cancer cure.
The study was conducted by Cambridge University researchers. Progesterone is actually a cheap drug that is contained in contraceptives, according to Daily Mail.
When estrogen, a female hormone fuels tumors, medications like tamoxifen block the estrogen receptors, according to India Times. They cause cancer cell growth.
However, when breast cancer tumors also have progesterone receptors, the patient has a better outlook. Researchers have been searching decades for the reason.
Scientists have learned how the progesterone receptor in breast cancer cells "talks" to the estrogen receptor, to alter their cellular behavior. This slows down tumor growth.
Jason Carroll from Cancer Research UK was the study's lead author. He said that scientists used the latest technology to learn the critical role that the female hormone plays in breast cancer.
The research indicates how a cheap, safe, and easily accessible drug could improve the breast cancer treatment for patients. About half of them could benefit from it.
Members of the research team cautioned that further studies are needed to test if the progesterone-tamoxifen combo has the same effect on women cancer victims as during lab tests. The drug's form could be a pill or injection.
Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women worldwide, with almost 1.7 million new cases being diagnosed in 2012. Nearly three-fourths of breast cancer victims survive over 20 years after their diagnosis.
The researchers' findings were recently published in the journal Nature.