Different forms of diclofenac
(Mirror Daily, United States) – The expression “to work on something like it’s the cure for cancer” has never been as accurate as it is today, as multiple groups are looking into multiple alternatives that could help in the war on cancer. After another team discovered a common natural occurring preservative to be very helpful against tumors, another team discovers diclofenac painkiller works wonders against cancer.
The discovery was made by a team working for an international project called ReDO, or the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology project. The project is a collaboration between the Anticancer Fund, Belgium, and GlobalCures, and is meant to look for cancer therapies in common, widely used non cancer drugs.
The published their findings in the ecancermedicalscience journal, delving into how the common painkiller diclofenac may hold the answer to stopping metastases from occurring.
Available for a low price, the cheap and accessible pain killer is part of a group of anti-inflammatory drugs named NSAID, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug. They are generally used to treat rheumatism, migraines, post-operative pains, fever, rheumatoid arthritis, as well as gout.
These non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been known for a while to help in cancer prevention, but just recently they have been assumed to also help in treating the disease, especially alongside radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
I’m saying that the medicine can be used alongside radiotherapy and chemotherapy, because what diclofenac does is to slow down or even prevent the metastasis from occurring, which is one of the most crucial parts in fighting cancer, as it’s usually not the initial cancer that kills you, but the cells moving throughout your body.
Diclofenac works in more ways than one; it has multiple mechanisms that make it so useful. Being very good for the immune system and for angiogenesis, it was shown to have a huge potential as a cancer treatment, especially if used during the patient’s perioperative period.
ReDO researchers are impressed in their findings, claiming that research like this should have been done before, as using the cheap pain killing, metastasis preventing medicine in combination with modern cancer treatments could help say a great many lives.
Human trials will be starting soon, since diclofenac is an already approved medicine, so the risk factors, as well as most other details about it are already known.
To further make their point, the ReDO researchers stress once again how harmoniously the painkiller goes with the most recent treatments, since those are meant to take care of the initial cancer, while the diclofenac works to stop it from spreading.
Image source: Wikimedia
Matthew Slotkin
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