HIV Drug Shows Cancer Promise
U.S. researchers said a drug used to treat HIV can slow the growth of cancer cells.
Researcher Phillip Dennis and colleagues at the National Cancer Institute began testing HIV drugs on cancer cells after noticing that the toxic effects the virus has on cells are similar to the changes seen in cancerous cells, Nature said Friday in a release.
The report said three of the drugs significantly slowed the growth of the tumor cells and increased cell death, the researchers report in the journal Clinical Cancer Research. Nelfinavir was the most effective of the three, impeding the activity of protein-degrading enzymes in the cell and blocking tumor growth in mice injected with cancer cells.
Cancer scientists said repositioning drugs approved as HIV therapies could help to save lives by reducing the wait and cost of getting a cancer drug from the laboratory to the patient.
lab to clinic.