Dopamine May Be a Safer Antiangiogenic Drug for Malignant Tumors

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Vascular endothelial growth factor-A has a well-established role in tumor angiogenesis. Today, a variety of different cancer types and clinically treated via molecules that target vascular endothelial growth factor-A or its receptors.

The downside to the use of these antiangiogenic agents is that they are expensive and can produce serious adverse events in the patients who are being treated. It is necessary for researchers to focus on finding new drugs that have manageable risks and side effects in order to better to treat patients.

Researchers continued from the experimental model findings that revealed dopamine inhibits vascular endothelial growth factor-A-induced angiogenesis to investigate whether dopamine treatment produces toxicities that are similar to other antiangiogenic agents.

The researchers found that dopamine administered at 50 mg/kg/d x 7 days ip inhibited tumor angiogenesis and growth of both human colon cancer and lung cancer in mice without causing the typical side effects such as hypertension, hematological toxicities, renal toxicities, or hepatic toxicities.

Dopamine also prevented the development of neutropenia that is generally induced by 5-fluorouracil in the mice with colon cancer. Further research is need to confirm that the treatment is safe and effective in humans with these cancer types, but the promising results may indicate promise for the use of dopamine as a safer and more effective antiangiogenic drug for patients with cancer.