Researchers in Israel found that sildenafil may help prevent cancer from spreading by disrupting cholesterol use inside cancer cells. The finding came from lab work on mouse and human cancer cells and from a review of five million patient records within Clalit Health Services.
Senior study author Ayelet Erez, a cancer researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science, said: "We have uncovered a new biological pathway that links a well-known signaling molecule to cholesterol regulation within cells, and shown how this pathway can be harnessed to interfere with the ability of cancer cells to form metastases". The team's results were published in Cancer Research.
Ayelet Erez and cholesterol transport
The study tested how sildenafil affected cancer cells in the lab and found that the drug appeared to slow cholesterol transport. That left the cells less able to metastasize, pointing to a mechanism that goes beyond the drug's familiar use in Viagra.
Researchers tied that effect to a pathway linking a signaling molecule to cholesterol regulation within cells. In practical terms, the study suggests a route for interfering with metastatic behavior by making cancer cells less able to use cholesterol the way they need to spread.
Clalit Health Services records
The patient-record analysis added a second line of evidence. Within Clalit Health Services, people with cancer who were also taking sildenafil appeared to survive longer than similar patients not taking sildenafil.
The study also looked at statins. When sildenafil was combined with statins, cancer metastasis was further limited, and patients who took both drugs were even less likely to die of cancer in the medical-record analysis.
Cancer Research and next steps
The findings stop short of showing that sildenafil can work as a cancer treatment in real patients. Lab results and record-based associations can point in the same direction without proving that the drug will change outcomes on its own.
More studies will be needed to verify the findings and to quantify whether any effect is clinically meaningful. For now, the study offers a biological lead, not a treatment decision.
