UCLouvain researchers have discovered that an already existing drug, the molecule MitoQ, used for other diseases, in fact makes it possible to prevent the appearance of metastases in breast cancer in 80% of cases, as well as relapse for this type of cancer.
This is a giant step in the fight once morest breast cancer. Professor Sonveaux and his team have discovered that MitoQ, a drug developed for other diseases, makes it possible in 80% of cases to prevent the appearance of metastases in triple negative breast cancer. It also helps to avoid local relapses in 75% of cases. Since it already exists, this drug represents a considerable saving of time and a real hope for patients.
“As of today, there is no precise treatment capable of preventing metastases and these famous relapses, so the giant step we have just taken is to identify a treatment that is already a drug. So it’s not a molecule from a mad scientist’s laboratory but a real drug that is capable of having both activities at the same time: preventing cancer metastasis and relapse”explains Pierre Sonveaux, FNRS researcher at the UCLouvain experimental and clinical research institute.
To achieve this, researchers at UC Louvain administered MitoQ to mice with human breast cancer. They are now preparing to start phase II on cancer patients. If the clinical trial proves conclusive, MitoQ might be resumed orally within seven to eight years.
“Phase II is planned here at the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and my team at UC Louvain will participate in it. This is a very small trial where 20 patients with triple negative breast cancer will be treated in a classic, plus the MitoQ molecule”explains Pierre Sonveaux.
The drug was first tested for triple negative breast cancer which affects a thousand new patients every year. Cancer for which half of patients develop local recurrences and metastases. Researchers at UC Louvain are already planning to test it on patients suffering from other types of cancer such as pancreatic or prostate.
