Most of us think of the heart as a highly sophisticated and durable pump. But another function of the heart is to secrete peptide hormones, which are small proteins that function as hormones. Multiple hormones are encoded by the atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) gene that help to regulate blood pressure and volume. At the Experimental Biology 2008 conference in San Diego this April, Dr. David Vesely, a doctor at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital in Tampa and a professor at the University of South Florida (USF), will present findings that hormones from the heart are also extremely effective at fighting both pancreatic and breast cancers in mice, with no observed side effects. More than 75% of mice treated with the hormones were cured of human pancreatic cancer, and more than 66% of mice with human breast cancer were cured, according to Dr. Vesely. No other treatments were given. In uncured mice with pancreatic cancer, which is fast-moving and typically has a poor prognosis, tumors still shrank to less than 10% of their original size.

The hormone treatments have not yet been tried with humans, and a private biotechnology company is now raising money to start trials. We can only hope that the treatment will work equally well in humans, but the sobering fact is that a mouse with cancer is in a lot better luck than a human, since many treatments that work in mice do not translate to humans. 

Source: EurekAlert!