Four cardiac hormones eliminate up to 82% of human medullary thyroid carcinoma cells within 24 hours.

Four cardiac hormones, i.e., atrial natriuretic peptide, vessel dilator, long-acting natriuretic peptide, and kaliuretic peptide, which have anticancer effects, were evaluated for the first time on any endocrine cancer to determine if they have anticancer effects in an endocrine cancer. These four cardiac hormones were evaluated for their anticancer, DNA synthesis, and receptor status in human medullary thyroid cancer cells. There was a significant (p < 0.001) decrease in human medullary thyroid cancer cells with each 10-fold increase from 1 to 100 microM of the four cardiac hormones. There was an 81%, 68%, 71%, and 66% elimination within 24 h of medullary thyroid cancer cells secondary to vessel dilator, kaliuretic peptide, atrial natriuretic peptide, and long-acting natriuretic peptide, respectively (p < 0.0001). Three days after treatment with these peptide hormones, there was no proliferation of the medullary thyroid cancer cells. These cardiac hormones decreased DNA synthesis in the medullary thyroid cells from 65% to 84% (p < 0.0001). Western blots revealed natriuretic peptide receptors-A and -C were present in human medullary thyroid cancer cells. These results indicate the four cardiac hormones have potent anticancer effects by eliminating up to 82% of human medullary thyroid carcinoma cells within 24 h of treatment.