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The cancer drugs in your bathroom cabinet

Unlike older therapies, which directly target and destroy dividing cancer cells, many of these repurposed drugs appear to work by targeting the healthy cells that cancers team up with to support their growth. Though widely accepted, this view of cancer as a mixture of deranged and healthy cells is still relatively new – which in part explains why the anti-cancer properties of drugs like aspirin may have been missed the first time around. “When many of these drugs were developed, we had a very simplistic view of cancer and all the focus was on finding ways of killing cancer cells,” says Pan Pantziarka, joint coordinator of the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology project, which aims to identify the most…

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 Global Scandal: The Dangerous Trade in Fake Cancer Drugs

The global trade in fake cancer drugs has reached alarming proportions, with substandard and counterfeit medications infiltrating supply chains in more than 100 countries. Recent investigations, including a major report by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, reveal that vital chemotherapy drugs—used to treat common cancers such as breast, ovarian, and leukemia—often fail quality tests, leaving patients at risk of ineffective treatment or dangerous side effects.

 If we don’t talk about value, cancer drugs will become terminal for health systems

More than 100 prominent oncologists from across the United States have called on cancer patients to challenge the high prices charged by pharmaceutical companies for new cancer drugs. They claim drug companies, insurance companies, some patient advocacy groups and many hospitals and physicians are too financially conflicted to be driving the debate.

 Why Preventing Cancer Is Not the Priority in Drug Development

Most people would agree that it would be better to prevent cancer, if we could, than to treat it once it developed. Yet economic incentives encourage researchers to focus on treatment rather than prevention. The way the patent system interacts with the Food and Drug Administration’s drug approval process skews what kinds of cancer clinical trials are run. There’s more money to be made investing in drugs that will extend cancer patients’ lives by a few months than in drugs that would prevent cancer in the first place.

Articles of Interest

Chemotherapy is brutal, but targeted drugs can reduce collateral damage

Targeted therapies are like heat-seeking missiles programmed to find and attack cancer but leave healthy cells alone.

Personalized cancer treatments based on testing drugs quickly leads to faster treatment, better outcomes

Even though two people with the same cancer might get the same medicine, they can have very different outcomes. Because each patient’s tumor is unique, it can be challenging to know which treatment works best. To solve this problem, doctors analyze DNA mutations in the patient’s tumor, blood or saliva to match cancer medicines to patients. This approach is called precision medicine. However, the relationship between cancer DNA and how effective medicines will be against them is very complex. Matching medications to patients based on a single mutation overlooks other genetic and nongenetic mechanisms that influence how cells respond to drugs.

Academic Discovery of Anticancer Drugs: Historic and Future Perspectives

The identification and prosecution of meritorious anticancer drug targets and the discovery of clinical candidates represent an extraordinarily time- and resource-intensive process, and the current failure rate of late-stage drugs is a critical issue that must be addressed. Relationships between academia and industry in drug discovery and development have continued to change over time as a result of technical and financial challenges and, most importantly, to the objective of translating impactful scientific discoveries into clinical opportunities.

An old drug with new tricks

As the hunt for effective cancer therapies intensifies, some scientists are turning back to look at old drugs in a new light. The anti-malarial hydroxychloroquine is one such drug that has been “repurposed” to fight cancer. Despite its effectiveness at blocking the resupply of needed resources to cancer cells, clinical trial results have been disappointing, in part because cancer cells eventually become resistant to the drug.

As Drug Costs Soar, People Delay Or Skip Cancer Treatments

For the first time since being diagnosed 10 years ago, Krahne, 65, decided to delay filling his prescription, hoping that his cancer wouldn't take advantage of the lapse and wreak further havoc on his body. With new cancer drugs commonly priced at $100,000 a year or more, Krahne's story is becoming increasingly common. Hundreds of thousands of cancer patients are delaying care, cutting their pills in half or skipping drug treatment entirely, a Kaiser Health News examination shows.

Can Chemotherapy Drugs Be Designed to Avoid Side Effects?

Many drugs tested as cancer treatments have shown great promise in shrinking or eliminating tumors but failed in one crucial aspect: They also damage healthy tissues, causing serious side effects. Damage to normal tissues and organs can limit the dose of a drug or the amount of time a drug can be given, or exclude it from further testing outright. In a new study, NCI-funded researchers designed a novel way around this problem for one drug. They modified a once-promising chemotherapy drug that had been abandoned due to damage it causes in gut tissues into a compound with “on” and “off” switches.

Cancer chemotherapy and beyond: Current status, drug candidates, associated risks and progress in targeted therapeutics

Chemotherapeutic agents/pharmaceuticals served a great purpose over the past few decades and have remained the frontline choice for advanced-stage malignancies where surgery and/or radiation therapy cannot be prescribed due to specific reasons. The present report succinctly reviews the existing and contemporary advancements in chemotherapy and assesses the status of the enrolled drugs/pharmaceuticals; it also comprehensively discusses the emerging role of specific/targeted therapeutic strategies that are presently being employed to achieve better clinical success/survival rate in cancer patients.

Cancer Drugs Cost More than Ever. They Often Don't Extend Lives

They're still often used in combination with toxic chemotherapy and radiation, at a staggering cost:

Colombia’s Battle With a Cancer Drug Company Could Set a Global Precedent for Generic Meds

Colombia has told pharmaceutical giant Novartis that unless it lowers the price of one of its cancer medications by the end of the month, it will lose the monopoly of the market in the country that it currently enjoys.

Common chemotherapy drugs don’t work like doctors thought, with big implications for drug discovery

A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison suggests that chemotherapy may not be reaching its full potential, in part because researchers and doctors have long misunderstood how some of the most common cancer drugs actually ward off tumors. For decades, researchers have believed that a class of drugs called microtubule poisons treat cancerous tumors by halting mitosis, or the division of cells. Now, a team of UW–Madison scientists has found that in patients, microtubule poisons don’t actually stop cancer cells from dividing. Instead, these drugs alter mitosis — sometimes enough to cause new cancer cells to die and the disease to regress.

Diluted Chemotherapy Medicine Is Killing Canadian Cancer Patients

A few weeks ago, the news broke that a number of cancer patients in Canada had been on the receiving end of faulty chemotherapy medications. The saline bags used to administer the drugs were overfilled, diluting the medication anywhere from 3 to 20 percent. These bags were administered to 1,176 patients in Ontario and New Brunswick. When the story broke, it seemed as though the controversy was relatively minor. Of course, no cancer patient wants to hear that their medications have been compromised by an avoidable human error, but public officials and oncologists alike assured the public that the possible effects of this mistake were minimal.

Discovering early chemotherapy drugs

We were the first in Europe to develop chemotherapeutic agents, and we discovered, and with The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust developed, the chemotherapy drugs busulfan, chlorambucil, melphalan and carboplatin, which are still in use worldwide more than 50 years later.

Do new cancer drugs work? Too often we don’t really know (and neither does your doctor)

It’s hard to find anyone who hasn’t been touched by cancer. People who haven’t had cancer themselves will likely have a close friend or family member who has been diagnosed with the disease. If the cancer has already spread, the diagnosis may feel like a death sentence. News that a new drug is available can be a big relief. But imagine a cancer patient asks their doctor: “Can this drug help me stay alive longer?” And in all honesty the doctor answers: “I don’t know. There’s one study that says the drug works, but it didn’t show whether patients lived longer, or even if they felt any better.” This might sound like an unlikely scenario, but it’s precisely what a team of UK researchers found to be the case when it comes to many new cancer drugs.

Dozens of non-oncology drugs can kill cancer cells

A study testing thousands of medicines in hundreds of cancer cell lines in the lab uncovers new tricks for many old drugs.

Evolution of Cancer Pharmacological Treatments at the Turn of the Third Millennium

Today, cancer research is always aimed at the study and development of new therapeutic approaches for cancer treatment. Currently, several researchers are focused on the development of cell therapies, anti-tumor vaccines, and new biotechnological drugs that have already shown promising results in preclinical studies, therefore, in the near future, we will certainly assist to a new revolution in the field of medical oncology.

Exploring the History of Oncology Drug Development

Challenges with translation, record-keeping, and ancient medical misunderstandings can complicate matters for historians hoping to explore the history of medicine. However, when it comes to oncology, one thing is certain: Humanity has waged war against cancer for centuries. Consider the case of Atossa, a Persian queen who lived around 520 BC and is often cited in early histories of cancer treatment. Historians believe that Atossa exhibited signs of a breast tumor, for which she was treated by the famed Greek healer Democedes. Long before Atossa, an ancient Egyptian man lived with signs of metastatic prostate cancer — at least, according to mummified remains evaluated via CT scans, which point to what is often considered the earliest documented case of its kind. Fortunately, advancements in cancer treatment mean that today’s oncology patients often have a far brighter outlook.

Failed cancer therapy revived as powerful tumor killer when combined with newer drugs

Decades after faltering, angiogenesis inhibitors show new promise when paired with powerful immunotherapies

Generic cancer drugs used around the world fail quality tests, investigation shows

Vital chemotherapy drugs used around the world have failed quality tests, putting cancer patients in more than 100 countries at risk of ineffective treatments and potentially fatal side effects, an investigation by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (TBIJ) reveals. The generic drugs in question form the backbone of treatment plans for numerous common cancers — including breast, ovarian, and leukemia. Some drugs contained so little of their key ingredient that pharmacists said giving them to patients would be as good as doing nothing. Other drugs, containing too much of the active ingredient, create the risk of severe organ damage or even death. “Both scenarios are horrendous,” said one pharmacist. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Historical Perspective and Current Trends in Anticancer Drug Development

Cancer is considered one of the leading causes of death in the 21st century. The intensive search for new anticancer drugs has been actively pursued by chemists and pharmacologists for decades, focusing either on the isolation of compounds with cytotoxic properties from plants or on screening thousands of synthetic molecules. Compounds that could potentially become candidates for new anticancer drugs must have the ability to inhibit proliferation and/or induce apoptosis in cancer cells without causing too much damage to normal cells. Some anticancer compounds were discovered by accident, others as a result of long-term research. In this review, we have presented a brief history of the development of the most important groups of anticancer drugs, pointing to the fact that they all have many side effects.

Metallo-Drugs in Cancer Therapy: Past, Present and Future

Cancer treatments which include conventional chemotherapy have not proven very successful in curing human malignancies. The failures of these treatment modalities include inherent resistance, systemic toxicity and severe side effects. Out of 50% patients administrated to chemotherapy, only 5% survive. For these reasons, the identification of new drug designs and therapeutic strategies that could target cancer cells while leaving normal cells unaffected still continues to be a challenge. Despite advances that have led to the development of new therapies, treatment options are still limited for many types of cancers. This review provides an overview of platinum, copper and ruthenium metal based anticancer drugs in clinical trials and in vitro/in vivo studies.

Molecular chess? Hallmarks of anti-cancer drug resistance

Cancer teams need to learn to play molecular chess – effectively outthinking the cancer’s likely response to any treatment used, and to be ready for it. The tools provided by the pharmaceutical industry to allow this have never been better, and coupled with increasingly sophisticated radiotherapy and surgery, allow many patients to survive for years and even decades with cancers that would have killed them rapidly just 30 years ago. The principles of drug resistance – or perhaps the rules of molecular chess – are increasingly clear and can improve patient care.

Scientists Manipulate Common Plants to Produce Cancer Drugs

Stanford researchers have figured out how to transfer a rare plant’s chemical “assembly line” into a cheap, common lab plant.

Taxol, the anticancer drug discovered in the bark of a tree

Taxol is a chemotherapy drug used in the treatment of specific human cancers. It is a member of the taxane family of drugs, which includes cabazitaxel and docetaxel. Arthur Barclay was a botanist working for the US Department of Agriculture in the 1960s. Under contract to the US National Cancer Institute, Barclay collected samples of plants to find new drugs. The National Cancer Institute screened 35,000 plants. One particular sample Barclay collected, the bark of the Pacific Yew tree, went on to provide what is now one of the most highly prescribed chemotherapy drugs for cancer.

The Hidden Barriers Holding Back Cancer’s Most Promising Treatments

In 2010, the world of cancer treatment witnessed something remarkable. A new class of drugs called immune checkpoint inhibitors showed unprecedented results in cancers that had long defied treatment. By unleashing the body's own immune system against cancer cells, these treatments achieved what seemed impossible: long-term remission in patients with advanced melanoma who previously faced mere months to live. This wasn't just another incremental advance in cancer treatment. It represented a fundamental shift in how we approach the disease. Rather than bombing cancer cells with toxic chemicals or radiation, we learned to remove the molecular cloaking that cancer uses to hide from the immune system. The results were nothing short of revolutionary.

We Can’t Afford the Drugs That Could Cure Cancer

Customized immunotherapies are ready to revolutionize care and save lives—if drug companies stop charging so much for them.

What do the six main types of chemotherapy actually do?

‘Alkylating agents’ are a type of chemotherapy drug that bind to DNA, the genetic code contained within your cells that tells the cells how to behave, keeps your body functioning and makes you unique. DNA is made up of two strands, which wind together into a spiral shape, with the tiny proteins that make up the cell’s instructions safely in the middle.

What to know about the most common chemotherapy drugs

Chemotherapy drugs can kill cancerous cells through several mechanisms. There are many types of chemotherapy drugs, including alkylating agents and antimetabolites.

When Touted Cancer Drugs Don’t Work

Not all cancer prescription drugs are created equal. Some work better than others. Some are riskier than others. Some probably shouldn’t even be on the market. And, of course, some are way more expensive than others. In the world of medicines to treat cancer, these statements have special resonance. Few areas of medicine are as fraught with difficulty as cancer medicines, especially the large class of drugs broadly referred to as chemotherapy. These medicines are widely variable in effectiveness and safety, and very expensive — between $30,000 and $250,000 for a course of treatment.

Why the Latest Cancer Drugs May Not Be as Successful as They Seem

The reason has to do with the many ethically questionable practices throughout the drug-development process, says Peter Wise, retired from Charing Cross Hospital and Imperial College School of Medicine in London. These practices range from research by pharmaceutical companies to the way new compounds are tested, how data is interpreted, to the approval process by regulatory agencies and the way that doctors are incentivized to prescribe them. “There are different layers in the whole process and real problems all the way down the line,” he says.

Resources

Anti-Cancer Drugs

Anti-Cancer Drugs reports both clinical and experimental results related to anti-cancer drugs, and welcomes contributions on anti-cancer drug design, drug delivery, pharmacology, hormonal and biological modalities and chemotherapy evaluation.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy is a major forum exclusively devoted to antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal, and antiparasitic agents and chemotherapy. It is also a key source for microbiologists, pharmaceutical researchers, biochemists, pharmacologists, clinicians, and other specialists in infectious diseases.

Abraxane

Breast Cancer Treatment...ABRAXANE uses albumin, a human protein, to deliver the chemotherapy. It does not contain chemical solvents, like Cremophor. This eliminates the need for premedication with steroids or antihistamines for hypersensitivity reactions caused by these solvents.

Avastin

AVASTIN, in combination with intravenous 5-fluorouracil-based chemotherapy, is indicated for first- or second-line treatment of patients with metastatic carcinoma of the colon or rectum and in combination with carboplatin and paclitaxel, is indicated for first line treatment of patients with unresectable, locally advanced, recurrent or metastatic non-squamous, non-small cell lung cancer.

Cytoxan

Cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan; Cy) is an alkylating agent with cytotoxic and immunosuppressive activities. The parent compound is inactive in vitro and exerts its biologic activity through metabolites, mainly phosphoramide mustard generated by hepatic microsomal enzymes. The exact mode of cytotoxic and immunosuppressive action of Cy at cellular level is not completely understood. Myelosuppression, hemorrhagic cystitis, alopecia, and gonadal damage are the main toxic effects.

Doxorubicin (Adriamycin®, Rubex®)

Anthracyclines work by interrupting the copying of DNA, which is necessary for cancer cell growth. This causes the cancer cells to die, slowing or stopping tumor growth. Doxorubicin interferes with the growth of cancer cells and slows their spread in the body by inhibiting DNA synthesis and causing the production of harmful free radicals.

Erbitux

ERBITUX (Cetuximab), in combination with radiation therapy, is indicated for the treatment of a certain type of locally or regionally advanced head and neck cancer.

Faslodex

FASLODEX is a hormonal treatment for hormone receptor-positive metastatic breast cancer in postmenopausal women whose breast cancer has recurred or progressed following treatment with an antiestrogen, such as tamoxifen.

Lupron Depot

Lupron Depot belongs to a class of drugs called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonists. It is used to decrease the body's production of specific hormones, natural chemicals that influence the behavior of certain cells.

Tarceva

TARCEVA monotherapy is indicated for the treatment of patients with locally advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer after failure of at least one prior chemotherapy regimen.TARCEVA in combination with gemcitabine is indicated for the first-line treatment of patients with locally advanced, unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Xeloda

XELODA is a chemotherapy that's proven to fight certain types of cancer. XELODA is the first FDA-approved oral chemotherapy for the treatment of both metastatic breast and colorectal cancers.