New study reveals how a local anaesthetic can help fight breast cancer

The research group of Mariagrazia Uguccioni at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB, affiliated to USI), in collaboration with the Service of Anaesthesia of the Bellinzona Regional Hospital, has defined the mechanism by which lidocaine, a well-known local anaesthetic, inhibits the ability of breast cancer cancer cells to reach other tissues and thus generate distant metastases. The discovery is the result of the joint effort of basic and clinical researchers and was published in the latest issue of the British Journal of Anaesthesia, the most prestigious international journal in the field.

In the past, epidemiological studies have shown in cancer patients the existence of a link between having received a loco-regional anesthesia and a reduction in the incidence of subsequent cancer recurrences. To explain this correlation, several hypotheses, such as the reduction of stress during surgery or the direct inhibitory effect of certain anaesthetics, had been formulated; however, the actual mechanism of this observed protective effect had not been explained so far.

Now, and for the first time, the mechanism that allows a local anaesthetic to inhibit the migratory capacity of breast cancer cells has been described, thus producing a sort of protective effect. The anaesthetic used during surgery could therefore limit the possibility of cancer cells reaching other organs and this could result in a reduction in the risk of subsequent metastases in the tissues of the cancer patient, thus opening up new prospects for the fight against breast cancer.

The full article published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia is available at: https://bit.ly/2MuiPfJ