Description: WEDNESDAY, Nov. 7 (HealthDay News) -- In mice, an investigational agent called VN/14-1 proved effective in treating human prostate cancer, say researchers at the University of Maryland in Baltimore.

The five-week study found that daily injections of VN/14-1 in mice implanted with human prostate cancer cells resulted in up to a 50 percent reduction in tumor volume.

VN/14-1 blocks the breakdown of vitamin A-derived retinoic acid, the researchers explained. The drug appears to tackle cancer in multiple ways.

"This potent agent causes cancer cells to differentiate, forcing them to turn back to a non-cancerous state -- which is what we expected it would do -- but it also stops cancer growth by arresting the cell cycle and pushes cells to die by inducing programmed cell death," senior investigator Vincent C.O. Njar, associate professor in the department of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics in the School of Medicine, said in a prepared statement.

"These functions were une