Research has suggested that a drug used to treat cancer can stop contractions and may prevent premature labour. This research was carried out by a team from Newcastle University, they tested the drug Trichostatin A on tissue taken from 36 women undergoing a caesarean. They claim that it worked by increasing the levels of a protein that controls muscle relaxation.
Preterm labour and birth is the single biggest cause of death in infants in the developed world, around 1,500 babies die in the UK every year. There are a number of drugs which are used to attempt to stop early labour but research has shown them to have serious side effects.
The researchers got permission to take samples of the muscles of women undergoing caesarean sections at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle. They exposed the muscle to TSA, a drug used to treat cancer, and measured the effects on both spontaneous contractions and those induced by the labour drug, oxytocin.
They recorded an average 46% reduction in contractions for the spontaneously contracting tissue and an average 54% reduction in the oxytocin induced contractions.
Professor Jane Norman, a spokeswoman for the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology (RCOG), said: “At the moment, it’s not possible to treat preterm labour effectively. We only have drugs that delay it by 24 hours or so – not enough to deliver the baby safely. There are experts who say that until doctors understand the cause of premature labour there is no way to develop a successful a treatment.
Of course as with any research there are those who feel that premature labour and birth can’t be or shouldn’t be prevented as the body has started labour early for a reason therefore doctors shouldn’t mess with nature. However mothers who have lost a baby because they were born prematurely would disagree and would claim that their child’s life should have been saved.