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Brain Cancer
Drugs Commonly Used for Erectile Dysfunction Allowed More Chemotherapy to Reach Brain Tumors in Laboratory Animal Study
August 12th, 2008
In a study using laboratory animals, researchers found that medications commonly prescribed for erectile dysfunction opened a mechanism called the blood-brain tumor barrier and increased delivery of cancer-fighting drugs to malignant brain tumors. The experiments were conducted at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute and published in Brain Research. Viagra (sildenafil) and Levitra (vardenafil) are known as PDE5 inhibitors because they block an enzyme, phosphodiesterase5, which interrupts a series of biochemical events that cause the decreased blood flow of erectile dysfunction. This laboratory rat study, published...
Source: Cancer Weekly (2008-08-12)
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