The rationale for the study is the same as the reason that RU-486 induces abortion. RU-486 blocks progesterone, a hormone that is necessary to maintain a pregnancy, and which also appears to spur on the growth of meningiomas. The tumors grow dramatically during pregnancy, when progesterone levels are elevated. RU-486 might help attack those tumors that are inaccessible to the surgeon's scalpel, or keep in check tumors that might otherwise recur, he says. More than half of all meningioma patients experience a recurrence of the tumor.
Pregnant women are ineligible for the study.
RU-486, which is used in Europe to induce abortions, is banned as an abortion drug in the United States. A particular genetic aberration appears to occur in the early stages of all prostate cancers, the most common cancer in American men, according to a group of Hopkins urologists and oncologists. The scientists report their findings in the November 21 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Since every prostate cancer appears to contain GSTP1 genes that have been methylated, the abnormality probably arises early in the disease, says William Nelson, lead author of the study. He is developing a genetic test that could be used to diagnose early prostate cancer by detecting methylation of these genes.