Researchers at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital Stanford are investigating a surprising treatment for a rare and potentially dangerous childhood deformity. As I've described previously, pediatric dermatologist Al Lane, MD, and his colleagues are studying the drug sildenafil - better known by its trade name, Viagra - as a treatment for lymphangioma. The condition, an overgrowth of the body's lymph vessels, can cause disfigurement and even threaten children's lives if the deformity impinges on essential body structures such as the airway.
"It can be lethal in 10 percent of people or more, and the problem is, we don’t know what’s the best treatment," Lane told me.
Other treatments, such as surgery and sclerotherapy, are less effective than doctors would like: Afterward, the deformity often grows back.
A new publication from Lane's team appeared this week in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, reporting on the first seven patients to have their lymphangiomas treated with sildenafil. Though the idea of giving this drug to children might seem startling, it has a good safety profile and is already used in kids who have a form of high blood pressure in the lungs called pulmonary arterial hypertension. Lane realized that the medication might work for both PAH and lymphangioma when he treated a child with both conditions who was receiving the drug.
The new study shows mixed results. Six of the seven children responded to the medication, though not all responses were equally strong. One child's deformity became worse while taking the drug. The team is now planning a larger, placebo-controlled, blinded study to investigate why they saw these differences.
"If we can identify which patients respond to sildenafil, we may get a better idea for the molecular mechanism of how it helps, and that could help us understand the disease more," Lane said.
His team has applied for an orphan disease grant through the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and will find out in the fall if they've been funded.
Previously: Viagra may treat rare childhood deformity
