Common Painkiller May Also be a Cancer Killer

• comments
• 
• 

Investigation of a common painkiller diclofenac that is used to treat some common pains finds out that it may be holding important anti-cancer properties.

According to United Press International, Inc. (UPI), this common painkiller, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that may be also a cancer killer is sold as a drug with different names such as Cambia, Solaraze, Zipsor, and Voltaren. It is used to relieve fever, migraine, post-operative pain, acute gout, and rheumatoid arthritis and is sold cheaply and widely. Its effects on people's immune system as well as on angiogenesis or the development of blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients to the tissues make scientists excited over its potential use for cancer.

UPI adds that researchers have analyzed this literature that dates back to the year 1983, which showed that diclofenac may have anti-tumor effects against some diseases like colorectal cancer, fibrosarcoma, ovarian cancer, neuroblastoma, and many others. Medical records in retrospective analysis include different cancers that were treated with diclofenac before undergoing surgery to remove tumors, which statistically revealed that it has significant impact on the reduced mortality as well as on the risk of metastasis.

Moreover, there are also four clinical trials that investigate the drug's effects on cancer, which include the painkiller as part of TL-118 that is an experimental four-drug combination.

Parallely, News Medical reports that researchers from the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDo) project suggest that widely used and existing non-cancer drugs may constitute a relatively unused source of known cancer therapies. They have examined this literature, and they believe that there is already enough evidence that clinical trials may begin using diclofenac for treating cancers. It is because the drug has already shown promise in preventing the disease.

"It's still somewhat surprising that there is still so much we don't understand about how many of the standard drugs we use every day, like diclofenac, work," Pan Pantziarka, a PhD and study author who is also a member of the ReDo project and Anticancer Fund, said. "But the more we learn, the more we can see that these drugs are multi-targeted agents with interesting and useful effects on multiple pathways of interest in oncology."

ReDo researchers have also said that the risk cut down of post-surgical distant metastases by using drugs like diclofenac may be a representative to win the fight against cancer. Considering the multiple mechanisms that the drug acts, it could be that it has a huge potential in treating cancer, especially when there is the given peri-operative period.

The investigation of the drug is published in the journal called "ecancermedicalscience." In addition, another related article is published by EurekAlert.