Cancer Cure: Botox May Help in Treatment of Gastric Cancer

A study that was published in Science Translational Medicine showed that by blocking the chemical signal in the vagus nerve leading to the stomach with the help of botox injections can prevent the development of gastric cancer. It has been performed in mouse models as of now. Gastric cancer, also known as stomach cancer, is a cancer disease that develops in the stomach lining.

Duan Chen, a study investigator from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, said that the advantage of botox is that it can be used to target cancer stem cells and can be used locally or by injecting it through gastroscopy that requires the patient to stay in the hospital for just a few hours.

Timothy Wang, a study investigator from the Columbia University Medical Center in New York, told Medscape Medical News that in gastric cancer, there was an accumulation of nerves within the tumor and the density of these nerves that has a link with the prognosis, bringing into consideration that blood vessels might be playing an important role in tumor growth.

Dr. Wang explained that the vagus nerve leads to the stomach through two trunks. When unilateral or bilateral vagotomy was performed on mice in preneoplastic stage of gastric cancer, it showed that cutting both branches blocked the development of the cancer and in the case when only one branch was cut out, that branch alone prevented tumor growth, hence showing local effect.

Further experiments showed that denerving the stomach consistently leads to suppressing the tumor in mice. It was found that denerving the vagus nerve through botox injections had the same effect as vagotomy that helped block the development of gastric cancer in the mice. Botox helps to block the release of neurotransmitters, in turn, preventing communication of nerve endings with other nerves.

Subsequent experiments also found that denerving through botox could help bring up the effect of systemic chemotherapy, even enhancing the survival of mice suffering from advanced tumors.

Investigators noted on both studies that the research could apply to other tumors with nerve-tumor growth connection like prostate cancer but still further studies will be required.