Estrogen found to increase growth of the most common childhood b...( CINCINNATIUniversity of Cincinnati (...),Health

CINCINNATIUniversity of Cincinnati (UC) researchers have discovered that estrogen receptors are present in medulloblastomathe most common type of pediatric brain tumorleading them to believe that anti-estrogen drug treatments may be beneficial in limiting tumor progression and improving patients' overall outcome.

This research is being published in the March 2009 edition of Endocrinology.

In estrogen-responsive cancerssuch as breast cancerestrogen receptors act to increase tumor growth and progression. Estrogen receptors are also the most important drug targets for the treatment of breast cancer.

"Current therapies for medulloblastoma involve cranial surgery, chemotherapy and radiation," says Scott Belcher, PhD, principal investigator of the study. "This discovery suggests that we may be able to use anti-hormone or estrogen drug therapieslike those used to treat breast cancersto limit progression of these childhood brain tumors and to decrease the adverse side-effects of radiation treatment."

Medulloblastoma, or MD, is a highly malignant brain tumor, most commonly diagnosed in children.

Patients with MD typically have a five-year survival rate between 50 and 70 percent, and survivors who endure current, more aggressive treatments face an increased risk for chronic illnesses such as diabetes or cardiovascular disease later in life.

Belcher, an associate professor in the department of pharmacology and cell biophysics at UC, and his team examined tumor tissue from 22 patients between the ages of 6 months and 18 years.

They found evidence of estrogen receptors, particularly estrogen receptor beta, in the cancerous cells of every tumor analyzed.

"MD manifests when specific neuron precursors in the brain fail to stop normally differentiating into mature neurons," Belcher says. "Our previous studies showed that estrogen receptors are regulated during differentiation of these neuronal precur
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