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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 16, 1993                   TAG: 9304160161
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: STATE 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SAN DIEGO                                LENGTH: Short

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ABORTION PILL MAY FIGHT TUMORS

The French abortion pill RU-486 appears to produce modest but encouraging improvement in some victims of inoperable brain tumors, according to a report Wednesday.

The pill's primary use is inducing abortions. But researchers believe it may help combat diseases that result from misguided responses to progesterone, a female sex hormone.

One of these disease is meningiomas, slow-growing benign tumors of the lining of the brain and spinal cord that strike about 2,500 Americans annually. The first line of treatment is surgery to cut out the tumors, but sometimes they grow in parts of the brain where they cannot be removed.

The disease can lead to blindness, paralysis, seizures and other symptoms when the tumors press on key parts of the brain.

In a pilot study beginning in 1987, Dr. Steven Grunberg and others from the University of Southern California gave RU-486 to 28 men and women with inoperable tumors.

After an average of two years of follow-up, the researchers concluded that eight of the patients appeared to have benefited.

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