Drug May Slow Spread of Deadly Eye Cancer

William Harbour's new study has found that drugs known as histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors can alter the DNA of the aggressive type of uveal melanoma (the second most common form of melanoma that commonly spreads to the eye and liver), which changes the way key genes are expressed. This in turn can render the tumor cells to be less aggressive than normal. In the lab and in animals, he has found http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthat these inhibitors can block the growth of the tumor cells that are proliferating, and it seems that it does so by reversing the aggressive molecular signature that has recently been marked for metastatic death. Harbour says in the article, "I suspect that the best role for HDAC inhibitors will be to slow or prevent the growth of tumor cells that have spread out of the eye but cannot yet be detected. This might lengthen the time between the original eye treatment and the appearance of detectable cancer in the liver and elsewhere." Clinical trails look promising within 6 to 12 months, and should be efficient due to the fact that side effects are very low and harmless, since the HDAC drugs do not cause sufficient harmful effects on the body. The rest of the article can be viewed and read here:

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