According to recent research, cholesterol-lowering medications currently supplied to millions of adults may eventually aid in slowing the development of ovarian cancer.
About 7,600 women in the UK are affected with ovarian cancer each year, making it the sixth most frequent malignancy among women. Approximately 4,000 of them will pass away, and the danger of cancer rises with each ovulation.
However, because the symptoms of ovarian cancer, including bloating, are not always evident, the disease is frequently discovered later, when treatment is more difficult.
Bloating, which results from an accumulation of fluid in the abdomen known as ascites, is one of the most prevalent warning indicators.
Ninety percent of women with advanced ovarian cancer develop ascites, which causes bloating, nausea, decreased appetite, dyspnoea, and exhaustion.
Up until now, specialists have mostly seen fluid accumulation as a symptom rather than an active cause of illness.
However, US researchers now think that this fluid may aid in the survival and spread of cancer cells, and a cholesterol medication that has been around for decades may be able to undermine that defence.
Professor Jen-Tsan Chi, the study’s lead author, stated, “We’ve discovered it gives cancer a survival advantage, which fills a major gap in understanding how ovarian cancer spreads.”
One of the most prevalent yet often ignored symptoms of ovarian cancer is bloating.
The results do not support the use of bezafibrate, a medication that modifies the body’s fat metabolism, to treat ovarian cancer.
However, they contend that making it more difficult for cancer cells to proliferate may increase the tumours’ susceptibility to current therapies.
According to the study, which was published in the journal Nature Communications, the fluid protects cancer cells from ferroptosis, a form of cell death.
This occurs when lipids and iron within a cell interact, causing the cell membrane to “rust” and disintegrate.
This type of damage typically affects metastatic cancer cells, which separate from the primary tumour and spread to other parts of the body.
To observe how cancer cells reacted to cell-death signals, researchers from the Duke Cancer Institute submerged the cells in patient fluid.
They discovered that the fluid prevented cancer cells from dying by changing how they metabolised iron and lipids.
The fluid completely envelops these cells in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. However, laboratory research revealed that merely 2% coverage was sufficient to keep them safe.
Iframes are not supported by your browser.It’s interesting to note that the fluid only seemed to shield cancer cells from ferroptosis; it had no effect on other well-known forms of cell death.
The study’s first author, Yasaman Setayeshpour, a microbiologist, noted, “To figure out why, we broke down ascites into major parts like lipids, proteins, and small molecules, and tested what happened when each was removed.”
The protective effect vanished when the lipids (fats) were removed.
She went on, “That told us lipids are the key reason ascites helps these cancer cells survive.”
The researchers examined many cholesterol-lowering medications to eliminate lipids, a form of fat present in every cell in the body.
The body naturally produces cholesterol, a fatty molecule that is essential to maintaining our health.
However, excessive amounts of so-called “bad” cholesterol cause issues.
Excess low-density lipoprotein (LDL) can accumulate inside blood arteries over time, creating fatty deposits that impede blood flow and increase the risk of dementia, heart attack, and stroke.
By inhibiting an enzyme that the liver needs to produce cholesterol, cholesterol-lowering drugs encourage the liver to eliminate cholesterol from the blood.
Researchers now think that the fatty surroundings of tumours may potentially serve to shield cancer cells.
Cancer cells perished more quickly when there was less fat in the fluid due to cholesterol-lowering medications.
The researchers came to the conclusion that using repurposed cholesterol medications to target this usually fat-rich milieu could make cancer cells more susceptible to current cancer treatments.
“This work shows how much the environment around a tumour matters,” Professor Chi continued.
Ascites and other biological fluids do more than only provide a space for cancer cells to proliferate. They actively contribute to the spread of cancer.
In order to alleviate symptoms, doctors can already remove fluid from the abdomen using a little tube. However, this is not currently utilised to reduce the disease’s course.
Abdominal or pelvic pain or tenderness, indigestion, altered bowel habits, back pain, exhaustion, irregular bleeding, and inexplicable weight loss are other symptoms.
