Ketamine used as an acesodyne in human breast cancer therapy causes an undesirable side effect, upregulating anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2 expression

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic agent that has been widely used in surgery and for relieving pain in chronic cancer patients. We applied ketamine to breast cancer cell line MDA-MB-231 to detect the effect of treatment and molecular mechanisms involved. We found that ketamine can upregulate the level of anti-apoptosis protein Bcl-2, which promotes breast cancer cell invasion and proliferation. Knockdown of Bcl-2 could inhibit the increase of Bcl-2 and reduce the invasion and proliferation caused by ketamine in human breast cancer cells. Our findings provide new insight into the effects of ketamine in cancer treatment; we suggest that ketamine, which has been widely used in cancer operations and for relieving pain in chronic cancer patients, may be not the best choice because it can worsen the cancer through promotion of anti-apoptosis.

ADNP Is a Therapeutically Inducible Repressor of WNT Signaling in Colorectal Cancer

“…The benefit for patients with colorectal cancer with advanced disease by repressing WNT through ADNP induction with low-dose ketamine may quite easily be tested as an add-on to existing treatment regimens, as this substance and its pharmacologic characteristics are well studied (30). Of course, side effects of this treatment are to be carefully evaluated and strictly balanced with potential therapeutic benefits, especially since others reported adverse effects of ketamine for patients with other malignancies, such as breast cancer (31).…”

Preemptive analgesia effects of Ketamine in patients undergoing surgery. A meta-analysis

“…While another recent studies found that the preoperative administration of 0.5 mg/kg ketamine in patients undergoing cesarean section did not elicit a preemptive analgesic effect 13 . Moreover, Hala et al 14 reported that intranasal ketamine could enhance the postoperative analgesia after endoscopic nasal surgery, but the psychomimetic side effects of ketamine still occurred with intranasal administration. Thus, whether preemptive analgesic of ketamine is effective and safety in managing postoperative pain remains need more strong evidence to determine.…”

<p>Effects of Anesthesia on Postoperative Recurrence and Metastasis of Malignant Tumors</p>

“…He et al reported that ketamine could induce anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-2 upregulation and promote breast cancer cell invasion and proliferation. 41 Contrastingly, a recent study suggested that ketamine was an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) antagonist that inhibits pancreatic cancer cell proliferation and apoptosis. 42 These indicate that ketamine has cancer-promoting effects mainly involving immune function suppression; however, its direct effect on cancer cells remains unclear.…”