Birth control pills are not protective against breast cancers, but early research indicates compounds in them might reduce risk for women genetically predisposed to breast cancer. Photo / Getty Images
Birth control pills are not protective against breast cancers, but early research indicates compounds in them might reduce risk for women genetically predisposed to breast cancer. Photo / Getty Images
Part II: The potential to ‘repurpose’ familiar drugs to fight cancer rather than pour billions into novel therapies is exciting scientists here and overseas. In Part II of a three-part series, Ruth Brown hears about Otago University studies into a compound in oral contraceptives for its potential to reduce breastcancer risk in women with BRCA1 gene mutations. You can read Part I of the series here.
Oral contraceptives for breast cancer?
Well, no … but a compound in them may help. Christchurch-based Otago University geneticist Logan Walker works with George Wiggins who is leading a project at the university’s MacKenzie Cancer Research Group investigating the potential of a compound in oral contraceptives for women with mutations of the BRCA 1 gene, which strongly predisposes them to breast cancer.
The compound in contraceptives, known as EE2, is a type of synthetic oestrogen that targets an enzyme which helps regulate oestrogen levels in the body, binding to the enzyme so it becomes inactive. The theory is that this compound will reduce the risk of developing cancer in women with the inherited gene variation.
Walker told the Cancer Society conference in March the project stemmed from a large international study led from Christchurch. “This led us to a gene involved in metabolism that, when it’s down-regulated, looks like it decreases the risk of a woman developing breast cancer. And those women all carry a pathogenic variant or a mutation in the gene BRCA1, which is the one that Angelina Jolie made relatively famous a while back.”
Wiggins and Walker are looking for an alternative to the radical option of undergoing a double mastectomy, as the Hollywood actor and many other women have done. There is also a drug that halves the risk of breast cancer, but due to side effects, is not well tolerated. “We do want to do better than that.”
So far, research funded by the Health Research Council hasn’t progressed past the lab, so it’s very early days in terms of results. Meanwhile, Walker does not recommend the oral contraceptive to women with the gene mutation. “We’ve been very clear, or tried to be, that we’re not advocating oral contraceptives. In fact, we know that oral contraceptives, in themselves, are not protective [against breast cancer].”
