Cancer Research: Some anti-psychotic drugs could fight against cancers

Antipsychotics (also called neuroleptics) are a group of psychoactive drugs commonly but not exclusively used to treat psychosis, which is typified by schizophrenia. Common conditions with which antipsychotics might be used include schizophrenia (as discussed above), mania, and delusional disorder. They might be used to counter psychosis associated with a wide range of other diagnoses, such as psychotic depression. These antipsychotic drugs can have a range of side-effects, causing many patients to stop taking them.
However, sometimes there are positive side effects. Research into finding medicines or chemicals that can help in the fight against cancer is one of the most researched areas in medical science. Cancer cells are much more rapidly growing than the normal cells in the neighborhood (surrounding body region), and it is by stopping the nutrients that nourish these cancer cells that antipsychotic drugs take effect (link to article):

According to a preliminary finding in the current online issue of the International Journal of Cancer, the anti-psychotic drug, pimozide, kills lung, breast and brain cancer cells in in-vitro laboratory experiments. Rapidly-dividing cancer cells require cholesterol and lipids to grow and the researchers suspect that pimozide kills cancer cells by blocking the synthesis or movement of cholesterol and lipid in cancer cells.
To test the idea, the researchers combined pimozide with mevastatin, a drug that inhibits cholesterol production in cells. The two drugs were more lethal in combination against cancer cells than when either drug was used alone. "The combination of pimozide and mevastatin increased cancer cell death," says UNSW researcher Dr Louise Lutze-Mann, a co-author of the study. Although side-effects are associated with the use of high doses of these drugs - such as tremors, muscle spasms and slurred speech - these effects are considered to be tolerable in patients where other treatments have failed and the drugs will only be used short-term.

Any research that helps in the fight against cancer is welcome, given that even with so many decades of research against cancer, it is still a fight; even effective treatment can have some bad side effects.

Drug experiment: Stopping breast cancers

Finding drugs that can beat cancer is a massive, ongoing research. It takes a lot of reseach and medical studies to find suitable molecules that can affect a particular cancer; as a result, when a particular molecule seems to have some promise, it raises a lot of hope and optimism, as in this case for this molecule that seems to have a positive affect on breast cancer (link to article):

A new drug called olaparib may help thousands of women suffering from genetic breast cancer, if results of the first tests on patients are to be believed. The researchers behind the study tested the drug on 54 women with advanced genetic breast cancer, and found that the drug olaparib could stop the growth of tumours and shrink them in more than 40 per cent of cases.
A large number of cases of breast cancer are caused by defects on the BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 genes, which put women at much higher risk of developing aggressive cancers of the breast or ovaries. And, usually, women who test positive for the mutations have their breasts removed as a precaution, because they have an 80 per cent risk of developing breast cancer in their lifetime.

Not every molecule makes it to after trials and studies, but all of them promise hope. The drug could remove the tumor from some of those afflicted; the drug works by acting on a protein that promotes cancer; another positive side effect is by acting only on the cancer cells as opposed to other cancer treatments that have side effects.

Research: Drug based on herbs lower risk of getting prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is a diseases that affects a significant portion of men, with the chance of getting prostate cancer getting higher as men getting older. It has been recommended that older men go in for regular medical tests to make sure that they are not at early stages of prostate cancer. In a recent drug trial, men who had an increased risk of developing prostate cancer were administered the drug, and it was found to be effective in some cases (link to article):

A novel herb-based therapeutic called Zyflamend has been found to be linked with minimal toxicity and no serious adverse events in men at high-risk for developing prostate cancer in its phase I clinical trial.
"Since we know that men with HGPIN have an increased risk for developing prostate cancer, new strategies formulated to decrease cancer risk, prevent or delay surgery, and improve quality of life, will be greatly beneficial for these men," said senior author of the study Dr. Aaron E. Katz, an associate professor of Urology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The researchers say that basic science studies have suggested that Zyflamend may have an anti-inflammatory mechanism of action, and the agent has been found to be effective in decreasing the proliferation of prostate cancer
in cell culture.

Analysis: Cancer drug linked to brain virus that proves fatal

Rituximab is a popular drug that is used for treating brain cancer. Rituximab is the most important and widely used cancer drug for lymphoma. It is also approved for treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and is widely used off-label to treat multiple sclerosis, lupus and auto-immune anaemias. However, a recent study seems to indicate that the drug is linked in some way to a fast acting and fatal brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalitis (PML). The infection causes the brain to degenerate, and can cause death. The study does not conclusively link the drug to the brain infection, but should seed the ground for further studies to determine this linkage (link to article):

A brain biopsy and a spinal tap confirmed the diagnosis of a swiftly moving and often fatal viral brain infection called progressive multifocal leukoencephalitis (PML) that attacks the brain's white matter. Both had lymphoma and had been taking the popular cancer drug rituximab (brand name Rituxan) before they developed the brain infection.
Bennett reports on 57 cases from 1997 to 2008 in which patients with anemia, rheumatoid arthritis or lymphoma developed the fatal brain disease after taking rituximab. They died an average of two months after being diagnosed, said a Northwestern release. Bennett said the brain infection is often overlooked and undiagnosed because it is so subtle at first. "People may think it's early Alzheimer's disease or depression," he said. "Many of these patients have cancer and when they die, people assume it's the cancer that killed them."

It is useful for people having brain cancer to know more about the impact of the drug.