Abortion drug may thwart breast cancer

Compound in RU-486 blocks growth of tumors in mice

The compound of chemical in the pillule of abortion RU-486 blocked the formation in the mice of the tumours of centre caused by a gene of mutant blamed in the centre of many women and cancers ovariens, researchers found.

The study, published Thursday in the Science of newspaper, suggests a new potential way to protect from the women genetically predisposed with these cancers by employing drugs to interfere a hormone called the progesterone, the researchers known as.

A team carried out by University of California to the scientist Eva d' Irvine that Lee noted that the compound, mifepristone, prevented tumours of centre by blocking progesterone in fabric cells of centre of mouse.

They said that they found this progesterone, which is implied in the reproductive cycle female, stimulates the proliferation of the cells of centre carrying a gene related to the breast cancer, probably feeding the growth of tumour.

The women with an undergone version a change of gene, known under the name of BRCA-1, face a risk much larger of centre and cancers ovariens. By age 70, more than half of them end upwards with one of the two types of cancer.