Is Mirtazapine And Fluoxetine Helpful In Treating Pancreatic Cancer?

Main Category: Pancreatic Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Depression;  Clinical Trials / Drug Trials
Article Date: 24 Sep 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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The treatment of pancreatic cancer remains a great challenge. The majority of patients with pancreatic cancer developed major depression. Antidepressant treatment has been accepted as one of the new strategies in cancer adjuvant therapy. However, systemic studies on the treatment of depression in patients with cancer have not been well documented.

A research article published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Jia Lin evaluated the effectiveness of mirtazapine and fluoxetine on body weight, ingestive behavior, locomotor activity and tumor growth in a pancreatic cancer mouse model in the six-week period trial.

In this study, the researchers observed that mirtazapine had the effectiveness of increasing appetite, partly reversed the rate of weight loss. In addition, the potential effectiveness of weight gain associated with an increase in food intake. However, fluoxetine produced a significant suppression of food intake and promoted weight loss. These effects lasted a long-term. Mirtazapine and fluoxetine didn't affect the pancreatic tumor growth. Mirtazapine had more quickly efficacy on the adaptability to new environment than fluoxetine.

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Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
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Reference: Jia L, Shang YY, Li YY. Effect of antidepressants on body weight, ethology and tumor growth of human pancreatic carcinoma xenografts in nude mice. World J Gastroenterol 2008; 14(27): 4377-4382 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/14/4377.asp

Correspondence to: Dr. Lin Jia, Department of Digestive Diseases, First Municipal People's Hospital of Guangzhou, Guangzhou Medical College, No.1 Panfu Road, Guangzhou 510180, Guangdong Province, China.

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection. It provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2003-2000 IF: 3.318, 2.532, 1.445 and 0.993. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of every month. The WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the title China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.

About The WJG Press

The WJG Press mainly publishes World Journal of Gastroenterology.

Source: Lai-Fu Li
World Journal of Gastroenterology