A common class of high blood pressure drugs may have the potential to slow the growth of virulent breast cancer tumors.

That’s the upshot of new research that shows so-called "beta blockers" may block the growth of aggressive triple negative breast cancer cells, which are fueled by the stress hormone adrenaline.

The research, published in the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology’s FASEB Journal, found that tumors have a cell surface protein called "beta2-adrenoceptor" that can binds both beta-blockers and the stress hormone adrenaline.

When bound to adrenaline, the beta2-adrenoceptor on these tumor cells stimulates growth and expansion. But when bound to a beta-blocker, the accelerated advance of these cells decreases.

"Previous studies have linked increased stress with accelerated onset of metastasis in some forms of breast cancer," said Michelle L. Halls, a researcher involved in the work from the Drug Discovery Biology Theme at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash University in Parkville, Victoria, Australia.

"By understanding how stress accelerates invasion in aggressive breast tumor cells, this work will inform future studies into whether beta-blockers could be a useful adjuvant therapy in the treatment of some aggressive breast cancers."

Thoru Pederson, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal, noted the study is the latest to spotlight the potential new uses of drugs that have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration to combat cancer and other diseases.

"This is excellent research that shows us that we still do not know the full potential of many of the drugs sitting in most medicine cabinets," Pederson said "Not only does this shed light on how to potentially improve the effectiveness of triple negative cancer treatments, but it also sheds light on the full effect that these common drugs have on our bodies."