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Old drug could have new use as cancer stem cell destroyer | CTV News
.....Thioridazine is known to work as a psychiatric and Parkinson's medication by targeting receptors in the brain for dopamine, which is a neurotransmitter that plays a variety of roles in the brain.
It turns out that leukemia cells (and other cancer types including ovarian) have a dopamine receptor on their surfaces too — making them vulnerable to the drug. The drug doesn't kill these cancerous stem cells, but rather encourages them to become normal again.
The team's research is published in the science journal, Cell.
.....The next step is to test thioridazine in clinical trials on cancer patients. The first study will focus on 30 patients with acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, whose disease has relapsed after chemotherapy.....
"By targeting the rare population of cells that seed, that drive the cancer, what we are hoping with the drug is to eliminate those cells and prevent patients from getting sick again," he says.
While researchers are excited, there are some concerns about side effects. Thioridazine was once widely used as a psychiatric medication, but its use has been curtailed after studies showed it can lead to heart and eye problems in patients taking it long term.
Health Canada took thioridazine off the market in Canada in 2005 after reports it could boost the risk of rare but potentially fatal changes in heart rhythm. Those problems happened only in patients who took the drug daily for more than two years. Bhatia says that for the cancer study, the drug would be used in low doses for about 20 to 30 days, much like standard chemotherapy.
A note of caution – many drugs that show effects in the lab may not work in people, so this is an exciting but very preliminary finding, say doctors.
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