A chemical used in the abortion pill has been found to prevent the growth of breast and ovarian cancers, scientists report today. Mifepristone is licensed as an abortion drug in the UK and is given to women to terminate early pregnancies. But research published in the journal Science reveals that by shutting down the hormone progesterone in breast tissue cells, the drug can also prevent tumours from forming. The discovery raises hopes that the drug could be used as a new weapon against genetic forms of breast and ovarian cancer. At present, women diagnosed with the cancers may opt to have operations to remove their breasts or ovaries to stop the disease spreading. Women with a defective version of a tumour-suppressing gene called BRCA-1 are much more susceptible to breast and ovarian cancer. By the age of 70, more than half of all women with a mutated BRCA-1 gene will develop breast or ovarian cancer. The new research on mice indicates that progesterone fuels the growth of cancer when the BRCA-1 mutation is present. Eva Lee, lead author of the study, from the University of California at Irvine, said: ‘We found that progesterone plays a role […]