Background: Four cardiac hormones i.e. atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), vessel dilator, long acting natriuretic peptide (LANP) and kaliuretic peptide have anticancer effects in vitro.
Materials and methods: These four cardiac hormones were infused subcutaneously for 28 days with weekly fresh hormones at 3 nM min(-1) kg(-1) body weight in athymic mice bearing human breast adenocarcinomas.
Results: Vessel dilator, LANP, kaliuretic peptide and ANP eliminated 67%, 50%, 67% and 33% of the HTB-132 human breast adenocarcinomas. LANP eliminated 100% and vessel dilator 1/3 of CRL-2327 breast adenocarcinomas. There was no recurrence of the breast cancers in the primary site and no metastasis except in the ANP-treated group in one year post-treatment. The natriuretic peptide receptors-A and -C were decreased 50% and 31%, respectively, in metastatic versus primary ANP-treated breast adenocarcinomas.
Conclusion: Four cardiac hormones eliminate up to two-thirds of human breast adenocarcinomas in athymic mice.