Recent News and Articles on the Keywords: new + womb + disease  Related to the article below (Last Update: 8/7/2008)

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New hope for womb disease sufferers

A painful womb disease affecting up to a quarter of women of reproductive age could be treated with drugs that inhibit the growth of new blood vessels, it was revealed today.

The approach is already being investigated as an alternative form of cancer therapy.

Today scientists presented early findings suggesting that angiostatic treatment could also be used to combat endometriosis.

Unlike some current treatments, angiostatic drugs would not prevent a woman having a baby.

Endometriosis, which damages the lining of the womb, can be extremely painful and lead to infertility.

Serious side effects

Currently, the condition is treated with hormones or surgery. But the disease often recurs, and the treatment can have serious side effects.

Two teams of researchers told a fertility conference today of encouraging results from animal experiments investigating angiostatin therapy.

Dr Christian Becker, from the Children's Hospital, Boston, working with colleagues from Berlin, tested the drug endostatin on mice with endometriosis.

The drug blocks a process called angiogenesis, by which new blood vessels are created.

Dr Becker found that the growth and number of lesions were halved, and the tissue area covered by the disease greatly reduced.

Dr Becker told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) meeting in Berlin: "I believe it should be possible to try endostatin in endometriosis patients in the foreseeable future.

'Highly unsatisfactory treatment'

"So far, medical treatment for endometriosis is highly unsatisfactory, due to strong side-effects and a high rate of recurrence. It is, therefore, imperative to find a new therapeutic strategy. Endostatin or other angiogenesis inhibitors could be one of these approaches."

Importantly, the drug had no side effects, and did not alter hormone levels and menstrual cycles in the mice.

"This may be clinically relevant as current therapy for endometriosis is aimed at suppressing the patient's hormones," said Dr Becker.

"For women who do not want to become pregnant this may not be a big problem, but as infertility is often connected to endometriosis it is problematic to suppress the patient's hormones, either by giving an oral contraceptive pill or gonadotrophin releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues.

These patients definitely will not be able to conceive under that medication. With endostatin, however, it would be possible to become pregnant."

Patient safety

Phase one endostatin cancer trials had already been completed, so data was available on how safe it was to treat human patients with the drug, said Dr Becker.

In cancer patients, endostatin is used to block the proliferation of blood vessels which nourish tumours.

Another study, led by Dr Annemiek Nap from the University Hospital Maastricht in the Netherlands, looked at mice transplanted with human womb lining.

Dr Nap tested four angiostatic compounds on 49 mice, and found that endostatin was the most effective.

The drug inhibited the number of newly developed blood vessels around lesions, and led to the growth of fewer endemetriotic lesions.

Dr Nap said: "Angiostatic therapy mainly inhibits the development of new vessels. However, it also interferes effectively with the maintenance and growth of endometriotic lesions, and thus may be a promising way of preventing the recurrence of endometriosis after surgical or hormonal therapy."