Medical Breakthrough: Propanolol Found To Have Anti-Cancer Properties

Certain cancers have no known cure until now, so patients are still on the edge about their condition. However, an international research team has recently revealed in their study that propranolol, a beta-blocker commonly prescribed to treat irregular heart rates and other conditions, has significant anti-cancer properties which can be used to fight the disease.

Science Daily reported that the Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) project, an international collaboration between the Anticancer Fund, Belgium, and US-based GlobalCures, explains that existing and widely-used non-cancer medications may reveal a relative early source of original therapies for cancer. Pharmaceutical companies devote not a lot of time to "repurposing" existing drugs. The ReDO project hopes to change that, by raising awareness such as publishing a series of articles in ecancermedicalscience to share evidence for using such therapies in cancer medicine.

Experts reveal that Propranolol is the latest addition to a series of drugs that could offer cheap, safe and effective cancer resolutions. It's very easy to get hold off, since it is available globally in generic form and is on the WHO List of Essential Medicines, most especially in angiosarcoma, a rare form of heart cancer. "The evidence to date in angiosarcoma is especially compelling," says study author Pan Pantziarka, Ph.D., of the Anticancer Fund, Belgium. "Here is a rare disease with high unmet needs that is unlikely to attract investment from the commercial drug development sector. Propranolol offers these patients evidence of efficacy and with little or no toxicity," reported news-medical.net.

Study author Vikas P. Sukhatme of Global Cures, Harvard Medical School, USA also explained saying: "Existing animal and human data on the use of propranolol to treat cancer is tantalizing and merits rapid and careful evaluation in a number of tumor types." According to a report by UPI, the paper also pointed out the possibility that propranolol can act on multiple points of the metastasis phase, particularly in the peri-operative setting. Health experts claim that post-surgical metastatic spread is an extensive clinical phenomenon, and giving a solution to this can hugely lead to improved outcomes. "There is good in vivo evidence that propranolol, alone and in combination with other agents, impacts this process," says Pantziarka. "Reducing metastatic spread ultimately saves lives."

Meanwhile, Gauthier Bouche, Medical Director of the Anticancer Fund, points out that propranolol has already been repurposed to treat childhood benign tumors. "An effective treatment against infantile hemangioma had existed since the 1960s but we only discovered this in 2008 when careful clinicians found it serendipitously. Every day I ask myself: 'what else can propranolol offer to patients with unmet needs?' I think there is a lot, and we shouldn't have to wait another forty years to find out."

The researchers are hoping that increased awareness will draw more attention into these medications which could ultimately lead to cancer care.