Cancer pain reliever may spread the disease

Turkmenistan News.Net
Monday 23rd November, 2009

US scientists have revealed that laboratory tests suggest morphine could encourage the spread of cancer, for which it is routinely prescribed.

Scientists believe the drug, which is used to relieve pain from surgery and tumours, may also
promote the growth of new blood vessels which deliver oxygen and nutrients to tumours.

Speaking at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Boston, Dr Patrick Singleton from the University of Chicago, said morphine not only strengthened blood vessels but also appeared to make it easier for cancers to spread to other tissues.

But, he said the scientists had found a drug to counter the morphine effect.

He said it could be overcome by a drug called methylnaltrexone, which was developed in the 1980s to prevent morphine-related constipation.

The drug is only approved in the US.

He revealed that in mice with lung cancer, MNTX inhibited the apparent tumour-promoting effects of opiates, and reduced the spread of cancer in the mice by 90%.

He said the new findings could change how surgical anaesthesia and analgaesics are supplied to cancer patients.

The tests were started it was noted that people receiving the MNTX opiate blocker survived longer after surgery.

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