Diclofenac may be a powerful weapon in fighting cancer alongside being a widely used and readily available painkiller. The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) is a project aiming to tap the potential of non-cancer drugs in the fight against cancer. The ReDO project is supported by the Anticancer Fund (Belgium) and GlobalCures (U.S.).
Through the ReDO project a number of non-cancer drugs are being studied for their potential application as cancer therapies. Among them, diclofenac – the widely used painkiller was found to hold significant properties to be used in cancer therapies.
Diclofenac is a widely used painkiller targeting migraines, rheumatoid arthritis and fever. The non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) was found to hold promise as a cancer drug by the international team behind the ReDO project. Diclofenac may be a powerful weapon in fighting cancer.
In the article published in the open-source ecancermedicalscience journal, the research team stated that previous studies as well as a proven track of progress in clinical trials support the idea of diclofenac, a non-cancer drug, being used as a cancer therapy. Its potential is based on the impact it has on the immune system. In addition diclofenac supports the process of development of the crucial blood vessels which ferry nutrients as well as oxygen to all body tissues. The process is called angiogenesis.
Doctor Pan Pantziarka with the Anticancer Fund stated in the article’s accompanying press release that non-cancer drugs still hold a lot of surprises in store. As knowledge of the way they work advances, non-cancer drugs reveal themselves to be multi-targeted agents with valuable potential for oncology applications.
The results of the study conducted under the ReDO project umbrella are based on the review of previous research conducted since 1983. Previous studies have looked at the potential of the widely used painkiller as a cancer drug used to treat fibrosarcoma, neuroblastoma, colorectal cancer, ovarian cancer and a host of other cancer types.
The potential of diclofenac as a cancer drug was most prominent when used in perioperative period. Patients who received the non-cancer drug before tumor-removal surgery showed the best results with view to reducing the risk of metastasis. In addition, patients who received the non-cancer drug in the perioperative period had a reduced mortality rate.
Currently diclofenac is investigated as a cancer drug in four different clinical trials. Doctor Pantziarka stated that the recently published study triggers more research on the effect of non-cancer drugs and NSAIDs on preventing metastasis in cancer patients.
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