Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0278488 (metastatic breast cancer)
 7,812 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The aim of these experimental and clinical studies was to determine if verapamil helps overcome multidrug resistance in tumor cells and in cancer patients. The effect of the calcium channel blocker verapamil on the antiproliferative activity of epirubicin (Farmorubicin, Farmitalia) was followed up in in vitro studies on two constant human leukemia cell lines: CEM/O (P-gp negative) and CEM/VCR 1000 with a positive multidrug resistant (MDR) phenotype. The MTT assay was used to study the antiproliferative activity. Verapamil in concentrations of 3 and 10 micrograms/ml enhanced by 10-fold and 19-fold, respectively, the effect of epirubicin in CEM/VCR 1000 cells and had no significant effect on epirubicin activity in CEM/O. Eleven patients with measurable stage IV breast cancer, clinically resistant to anthracycline treatment, received the FEC combination (5-fluorouracil-epirubicin-cyclophosphamide) twice with verapamil pretreatment, p.o. at the doses of 1280-2560 mg. There were two complete remissions (soft tissue metastases), four partial remissions (soft tissue metastases and lung metastases), and three stable diseases. These studies confirm the possibilities of overcoming multidrug resistance by the administration of verapamil in tumor cells and in cancer patients.
 ...
PMID:Does verapamil help overcome multidrug resistance in tumor cell lines and cancer patients? 887 36

The development of resistance to anticancer drugs is a major unsolved problem in the chemotherapy treatment of metastatic breast cancer. We have shown that increased expression of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) prevented nuclear entry of the doxorubicin molecules into murine breast cancer cells (4T1-R) leading to doxorubicin chemoresistance. This study was performed to test whether inhibition of P-gp using verapamil could overcome doxorubicin chemoresistance and eliminate multiorgan metastasis 4T1-R cells in BALB/c mouse. The 4T1-R cells were treated with doxorubicin alone, verapamil alone, and a combination of both. Multiorgan metastasis of 4T1-R cells in the presence and in the absence of combination treatment was determined in the BALB/c mouse model. Verapamil induced nuclear translocation of doxorubicin, G2-phase growth arrest and synergistically induced 100% cytotoxicity in 4T1-R cells in culture. However, the combination treatment using verapamil and doxorubicin did not improve the overall survival of BALB/c mice with metastatic breast cancer. Our results indicate that the combination treatment of verapamil and doxorubicin did not inhibit tumor growth in the lungs and liver indicating that the anticancer synergy mechanism of verapamil and doxorubicin is impaired in vivo in BALB/c mouse model with metastatic breast cancer. We propose that understanding the mechanisms as to why the combination of doxorubicin and verapamil treatment was impaired in the mouse model should allow novel approaches to improve chemotherapy response of metastatic breast cancer.
...
PMID:In vivo anticancer synergy mechanism of doxorubicin and verapamil combination treatment is impaired in BALB/c mice with metastatic breast cancer. 2478 Jul 44

A promising drug, palbociclib, received accelerated approval as a first line treatment when used with the aromatase inhibitor, letrozole, for postmenopausal women with hormone receptor positive advanced or metastatic breast cancer. We report a case of a patient who presented with febrile neutropenia, grade 3 stomatitis with lip swelling, periorbital edema, and transaminitis while on palbociclib and verapamil. Labs normalized upon discontinuation of verapamil and our patient was able to continue treatment with palbociclib and letrozole. Verapamil's inhibition of both permeability-glycoprotein (P-gp) and CYP3A4 is suspected to have led to the adverse side effects seen in our patient.
 ...
PMID:Verapamil as a culprit of palbociclib toxicity. 2952 51