Calcitonin as an antiproliferative agent [ 2000 - 2002 ]

Research Grant

Researchers: Prof David Findlay (Principal investigator)

Brief description Breast cancer remains the major form of cancer diagnosed in women, and is still the leading cause of cancer death. There remains a pressing need to find better ways to treat this disease. Increasingly, cancer treatments will make use of a growing knowledge of the factors that normally regulate cell growth, and will apply this knowledge to make cancer cells more sensitive to existing anticancer treatments. We are proposing here to study the hormone calcitonin as a novel regulator of cancer cell growth. Calcitonin is better known as a hormone that inhibits bone loss, by acting on bone resorbing cells called osteoclasts. However, our present proposal is based on our recent finding that the receptor for calcitonin is for some reason also found in many breast cancers. Moreover, we have shown that calcitonin can potently inhibit the growth of cells that have the calcitonin receptor on their surface. We plan to extend these findings in 4 ways: 1 We will make use of a large bank of breast cancer samples at the Royal Adelaide Hospital to determine whether the presence of the calcitonin receptor in breast cancers is related to other features of the tumours, such as their propensity to spread to other organs. 2 We will investigate the mechanisms by which calcitonin slows the growth of cells. 3 We have unique access to new calcitonin-like molecules, called calcitonin mimetics, which we will investigate for the ability to inhibit cell growth. These molecules are much cheaper and probably easier to administer than calcitonin itself. 4 We will investigate whether treatment of cells with calcitonin makes them more sensitive to other anticancer treatments. We hope that success in this project will lead to a more detailed understanding of the way that molecules like calcitonin can regulate cell growth and to new treatment options for cancer.

Funding Amount $AUD 206,103.58

Funding Scheme NHMRC Project Grants

Notes Standard Project Grant