Latest news with #cancerdrugs
The Independent
2 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
The cancer drugs that could lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease
Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco, have identified two existing cancer drugs that may help lower the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Researchers screened over 1,300 candidate drugs, narrowing them down to five that showed potential for reducing Alzheimer's risk in human patients, including two cancer drugs. The selected drugs, letrozole (for breast cancer) and irinotecan (for colon and lung cancer), were tested on mice and appeared to improve memory and brain function. This finding is significant because developing new drugs for Alzheimer's is extremely costly and time-consuming, whereas repurposing existing ones could accelerate clinical trials. The study, published in the medical journal Cell, offers a promising new direction for treatment given that Alzheimer's affects millions and care costs are projected to rise substantially.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Health
- The Sun
Two NHS drugs slows and could REVERSE devastating Alzheimer's, ‘exciting' study finds
TWO NHS drugs could be combined to treat, and even reverse, the most common form of dementia, scientists claim. A pair of cancer drugs have been identified as a powerful duo that may tackle Alzheimer's disease, after scientists sifted through 1,300 approved medicines. 1 The American team used cutting-edge computer tools to match the gene changes seen in Alzheimer's patients with medicines that reverse those effects. They found that two cancer drugs, both already available on the NHS, reduced brain degeneration in mice with the disease, and even brought back their memory. The study, from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), first looked at how Alzheimer's alters the activity of individual brain cells. They then searched for existing drugs that trigger the opposite changes, with the aim of rewiring damaged neurons and brain cells called glia. And when they tested the top two candidates, letrozole and irinotecan, in lab mice, the results were impressive. One theory of how Alzheimer's comes about is that sticky proteins - like amyloid-beta - start clumping together in the brain years before symptoms appear. These toxic clumps block communication between brain cells and trigger inflammation, eventually causing the cells to die. Some scientists believe this buildup is the root cause of Alzheimer's, so clearing it could stop the disease in its tracks. When combined, the cancer drugs not only halted brain cell damage but also undid toxic clumps of proteins, restored memory and reversed the disease's genetic footprint. Prof Marina Sirota, senior author, said: 'We're excited that our computational approach led us to a potential combination therapy for Alzheimer's based on existing FDA-approved medications.' She added: 'Alzheimer's disease comes with complex changes to the brain, which has made it tough to study and treat — but our tools opened up the possibility of tackling that complexity directly.' The scientists then trawled through the anonymised medical records of 1.4million over-65s and found those already taking the cancer drugs were less likely to develop Alzheimer's. Dr Yaqiao Li, the study's lead author, said: 'Thanks to all these existing data sources, we went from 1,300 drugs, to 86, to 10, to just five. 'In particular, the rich data collected by all the UC health centres pointed us straight to the most promising drugs. It's kind of like a mock clinical trial.' Letrozole is typically used to treat breast cancer, while irinotecan is prescribed for colon and lung cancer. Both are already used in the UK. 'So exciting' Prof Yadong Huang, co-senior author, said: 'Alzheimer's is likely the result of numerous alterations in many genes and proteins that, together, disrupt brain health. 'This makes it very challenging for drug development - which traditionally produces one drug for a single gene or protein that drives disease.' He added: 'It's so exciting to see the validation of the computational data in a widely used Alzheimer's mouse model.' The breakthrough, published in the journal Cell, could fast-track trials in humans. Prof Sirota said: 'If completely independent data sources, such as single-cell expression data and clinical records, guide us to the same pathways and the same drugs and then resolve Alzheimer's in a genetic model then maybe we're onto something.' She added: 'We're hopeful this can be swiftly translated into a real solution for millions of patients with Alzheimer's.' Alzheimer's causes a relentless decline in cognition, learning, and memory. But decades of research have only produced two FDA-approved drugs, neither of which can meaningfully slow the decline. In the UK, no disease-modifying drugs are currently approved or available. Instead, the UK relies on symptom-managing drugs, such as Donepezil and Rivastigmine. Is it ageing or dementia? Dementia - the most common form of which is Alzheimer's - comes on slowly over time. As the disease progresses, symptoms can become more severe. But at the beginning, the symptoms can be subtle or mistaken for normal memory issues related to ageing. The US National Institute on Aging gives some examples of what is considered normal forgetfulness in old age, and dementia disease. You can refer to these above. For example, it is normal for an ageing person to forget which word to use from time-to-time, but difficulties having conversation would be more indicative of dementia. Katie Puckering, Head of Alzheimer's Research UK's Information Services team, previously told The Sun: 'We quite commonly as humans put our car keys somewhere out of the ordinary and it takes longer for us to find them. 'As you get older, it takes longer for you to recall, or you really have to think; What was I doing? Where was I? What distracted me? Was it that I had to let the dog out? And then you find the keys by the back door. 'That process of retrieving the information is just a bit slower in people as they age. 'In dementia, someone may not be able to recall that information and what they did when they came into the house. 'What may also happen is they might put it somewhere it really doesn't belong. For example, rather than putting the milk back in the fridge, they put the kettle in the fridge.'
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Could cancer drugs be the future of Alzheimer's treatment?
With few treatments available to stop or reverse Alzheimer's disease, scientists have turned to cancer drugs as a potential means of walking back cognitive decline. Alzheimer's cases are rising in the United States and worldwide due to an aging population, but there is no cure for the disease. Attempts to develop new treatments that slow the disease's progress, rather than lessen symptoms, have frequently failed. Only two drugs — the antibody therapies Leqembi and Kisunla — are currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to slow the progression of early Alzheimer's, and scientists say their benefits are limited. Some pharmaceutical companies have halted or abandoned their Alzheimer's drug development programs because of unsuccessful trials. Others are trying to use existing medications, including popular weight loss drugs, to combat Alzheimer's. With that in mind, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco conducted a broad search for drugs that could be repurposed to treat the condition — in theory, reducing the time in which the drugs could be made available to patients. They scoured a database of more than 1,300 drugs of various classes, including antipsychotics, antibiotics, antifungals and chemotherapy drugs. Then, they looked at how those drugs affected gene expression. Their new study, published Monday in the journal Cell, identified two cancer drugs as the best candidates to lower Alzheimer's risk in patients. When combined, the drugs seemed to slow or reverse Alzheimer's symptoms in mice. One of the drugs is normally used to treat breast cancer, while the other is effective against colon and lung cancer. Alzheimer's disease is associated with significant changes in the way genes are expressed in the brain, leading to the increased production of certain proteins and the decreased production of others. These imbalances may disrupt brain function and contribute to symptoms like memory loss. Fewer than 90 drugs in the researchers' database reversed the expression of signature Alzheimer's-related genes in human brain cells. And five drugs in particular seemed to lower the risk of Alzheimer's in actual patients, based on electronic medical records. The authors ultimately selected two of those drugs, both approved by the FDA to treat cancer, to test in mice. 'We didn't expect cancer drugs to come up' as the most promising, said Marina Sirota, a co-author of the study and interim director of the UCSF Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute. The authors said the breast cancer drug letrozole seemed to change gene expression in nerve cells. And the colon and lung cancer drug irinotecan seemed to change gene expression in glial cells, which support the nervous system. Alzheimer's can destroy nerve cells and cause glial cells to proliferate, creating inflammation in the brain. In a 2020 study, breast cancer patients who received letrozole were less likely to develop Alzheimer's than patients who did not receive the drug. Colorectal cancer survivors treated with irinotecan also had a decreased Alzheimer's risk, according to a 2021 study. After testing the drugs in mice, the study authors found that the two-drug combo reversed brain degeneration and improved memory in mice that had developed hallmarks of Alzheimer's as they aged. Because results in mice often don't translate to humans, the researchers hope to test the drugs in a clinical trial with Alzheimer's patients. 'Developing a new drug can take hundreds of millions, or even billions, of dollars, on average take more than 10 years. For this repurposed drug, usually it just takes two or three years, and then you can go to the clinical trial and the cost is much, much lower,' said Dr. Yadong Huang, a co-author of the study and professor of neurology at UCSF. 'We still haven't generated or produced any very effective drugs that can really slow dramatically the cognitive decline,' he added. Part of the difficulty in developing drugs for Alzheimer's is the complexity of the disease. Its exact cause is largely unknown. For now, the authors said, it's unclear exactly why the cancer drugs seem to work against Alzheimer's. One theory is that the breast cancer drug blocks the production of estrogen, a hormone that controls the expression of a large number of genes. The colon and lung cancer drug may also block inflammation in the brain by preventing the proliferation of glial cells — though Huang said there are other possibilities. Dr. Melanie McReynolds, an assistant professor of biochemistry at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the study, offered another theory. Her research has suggested that a different type of cancer drug could help treat Alzheimer's by regulating glucose metabolism, the process by which cells make energy. McReynolds said the process is necessary for various brain cells to communicate with each other. 'With aging, with stress, with diseases, that line of communication is disrupted,' she said. McReynolds said the drug combo tested in the new study might reverse metabolic decline — what she called 'the secret for contributing to better outcomes with Alzheimer's.' But assessing how Alzheimer's patients tolerate the combination of cancer drugs will be important. Letrozole can cause hot flashes and irinotecan can cause severe diarrhea. Both drugs can lead to nausea and vomiting. 'These drugs have huge side effects, so you need to always balance and figure out whether those types of side effects would be amenable to somebody with Alzheimer's,' Sirota said. 'It's not that it's a slam dunk.' This article was originally published on Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
01-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Breast cancer patients ‘denied life-extending drugs because of unfair system'
Thousands of women with advanced breast cancer could be denied life-extending drugs because of the 'unfair' way they are assessed for use on the health service, a charity has warned. Breast Cancer Now has demanded 'immediate action' from Health Secretary Wes Streeting, urging him to scrap spending restraints. It is also calling for the NHS spending watchdog the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) to lower the bar for what it classes as a very severe health condition. Nice's severity modifier, introduced in 2022, gives treatment for more severe illnesses more weight, meaning the health benefits of certain drugs are valued more highly and more likely to be recommended for NHS use. According to Nice, the process raises the threshold for what it considers to be a cost-effective treatment, meaning it can give more expensive drugs the green light. However, a new report from Breast Cancer Now claims the system means women with incurable breast cancer with months to live may be told their condition does not qualify for the most severe rating. The call comes after it emerged that the life-extending drug Enhertu will not be made available for women with incurable breast cancer on the NHS in England and Wales. In November, Nice said talks with manufacturers AstraZeneca and Daiichi Sankyo over the price of the medication had broken down for the third time with no agreement. Claire Rowney, chief executive at Breast Cancer Now, said: 'The terrifying reality is that unless urgent action is taken thousands of women in the UK with incurable secondary breast cancer could be denied access to vital life-extending treatments because of an unfair system. 'We're talking about patients missing out on access to cutting-edge, effective treatments that could give them more time to be there for special moments such as birthdays or seeing their children or grandchildren start school. 'Treatments, such as Enhertu, that patients in other countries, including Scotland, can access, giving them the chance to live longer. 'Women with secondary breast cancer tell us they feel their lives are being deprioritised by the changes to the system. 'We will not stand by and witness more drugs being rejected or not taken forward, when the devastating cost is thousands more people with secondary breast cancer across England, Wales and Northern Ireland having their lives cut short.' Paula Van Santen, 50, was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer in July 2022, two months after her diagnosis of primary breast cancer. The mother-of-three, from Banbury in Oxfordshire, said: 'Secondary breast cancer has changed the lives of both myself and my family beyond belief. Coming to terms with my diagnosis is the hardest part because I've had to grieve for the life I had, but also the life that I'm not going to have. 'If a new drug can give me another six months, if it gives me another year, it's worth it. 'It could allow me to see my daughter get to 21, see my children get married or meet grandchildren. Just to have a picture with a grandchild so they would know that I existed would be so precious. That's what this could give.' Ms Rowney called for 'change' and said Mr Streeting should scrap 'opportunity-cost neutral' restraints. Opportunity cost neutrality in the Nice severity modifier aims to ensure the new system does not require more or less overall NHS funding than the old one. According to the Breast Cancer Now report, this is 'at the root of the issues with the modifier'. It added: 'It pits end-of-life cancer treatments against other severe conditions like cystic fibrosis in a way that's reductive and unfair to patients. And, ultimately, it creates barriers to the approval of drugs for advanced cancers.' Ms Rowney said: 'The system for deciding whether drugs are approved for use on the NHS must change now. 'We're calling for immediate action from Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to urgently scrap 'opportunity-cost neutral' restraints and for Nice to lower the bar for what it defines as 'a severe condition'. And we stand ready to work with them.' Dr Samantha Roberts, chief executive of Nice, welcomed the report from Breast Cancer Now, saying: 'The independent analysis we commissioned recently showed the new severity weighting is working as intended and expected. 'It is able to be applied more widely – for example to treatments for cystic fibrosis, hepatitis D and Duchenne muscular dystrophy – and has contributed to an increase in positive decisions for cancer medicines and non-cancer medicines. 'And other breast cancer treatments have been recommended since we introduced the severity modifier – including for advanced breast cancer. 'We remain deeply disappointed that we were unable to recommend Enhertu for HER2-low advanced breast cancer. We know this was devastating to all those hoping for a different answer. 'It remains the only breast cancer treatment we have been unable to recommend in seven years.' A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the upcoming 10-year health plan will 'transform the NHS and improve care for those facing cancer'. 'This includes rolling out DIY screening kits for cervical cancer, more radiotherapy machines in every region and opening more Community Diagnostic Centres closer to where people live,' they added. 'We know how disappointing it is to many families that the manufacturers of Enhertu are unwilling to sell this life-extending treatment to the NHS at a fair and reasonable price. Our door remains open to supporting the introduction of medicines at a cost-effective price.'
Times of Oman
30-06-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
Nearly 20% of cancer drugs defective in 4 African nations
Berlin: An alarming number of people across Africa may be taking cancer drugs that don't contain the vital ingredients needed to contain or reduce their disease. It's a concerning finding with roots in a complex problem: how to regulate a range of therapeutics across the continent. A US and pan-African research group published the findings this week in The Lancet Global Health. The researchers had collected dosage information, sometimes covertly, from a dozen hospitals and 25 pharmacies across Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Cameroon. They tested nearly 200 unique products across several brands. Around 17% — roughly one in six — were found to have incorrect active ingredient levels, including products used in major hospitals. Patients who receive insufficient dosages of these ingredients could see their tumors keep growing, and possibly even spread. Similar numbers of substandard antibiotics, antimalarial and tuberculosis drugs have been reported in the past, but this is the first time that such a study has found high levels of falsified or defective anticancer drugs in circulation. "I was not surprised by these results," said Lutz Heide, a pharmacist at the University of Tübingen in Germany who has previously worked for the Somali Health Ministry and has spent the past decade researching substandard and falsified medicines. Heide was not part of the investigative group, but said the report shed light on a problem not previously measured. "I was delighted that, finally, someone published such a systemic report," he said. "That is a first, really significant systematic study of this area." Causes need addressing, but it's not straightforward "There are many possible causes for bad-quality products," Marya Lieberman of the University of Notre Dame in the US, the investigation's senior researcher, told DW. Those causes can include faults in the manufacturing process or product decay due to poor storage conditions. But some drugs are also counterfeit, and that increases the risk of discrepancies between what's on the product label and the actual medicine within. Spotting substandard and falsified products can be difficult. Usually, a medical professional or patient is only able to perform a visual inspection — literally checking a label for discrepancies or pills and syringes for colour differences — to spot falsified products. But that's not a reliable method. In the study, barely a quarter of the substandard products were identified through visual inspection. Laboratory testing identified the rest. Fixing the problem, Lieberman said, will require improving regulation and providing screening technologies and training where they're needed. "If you can't test it, you can't regulate it," she said. "The cancer medications are difficult to handle and analyze because they're very toxic, and so many labs don't want to do that. And that's a core problem for the sub-Saharan countries where we worked. Even though several of those countries have quite good labs, they don't have the facilities that are needed for safe handling of the chemo drugs established." Not only cancer treatments are affected Nearly a decade ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) found around one in 10 medicines used in low and middle-income countries were substandard or falsified. Independent research conducted since has backed those figures up, sometimes finding rates that are potentially twice as high. "This could lead to treatment failure, adverse reactions, disease progression," health economist Sachiko Ozawa told DW. Ozawa contributed to the investigation on anticancer drugs and has separately researched other cases of defective medicines. "For the community, there's also economic losses in terms of wasted resources,' she said. 'So countries may be spending a lot of money on medications that are not going to be effective." While high-income countries can monitor supply chains and have stringent regulatory systems in place to identify and withdraw suspect products, the infrastructure to do that is far from common in other regions. In those places, poor access to affordable medication often drives patients to less-regulated marketplaces. Inadequate governance and regulation, as well as a scarcity of surveillance and diagnostic equipment to test pharmaceuticals, are all contributing to the problem in Africa. "In high-income countries, I think there's a much more secure supply chain where you know the manufacturers are vetted, it has to go through very stringent regulatory processes to get gets tested more frequently," said Ozawa. The WHO told DW that following the report's findings, it was working with the four affected countries to address the problem. "We are concerned with the findings the article has highlighted. WHO is in contact with national authorities of four impacted countries and obtaining relevant data," it said in a statement. "We expect to assess full information to evaluate the situation, which often takes time and capacity. But we're committed to address these issues working with the relevant countries and partners." The WHO also reiterated its ongoing call for countries to improve their regulatory frameworks to "prevent incidents of substandard and falsified medicines, including in settings of cancer programmes." Prevention, detection and response In 2017, the WHO's review of substandard and falsified medicines offered three solutions based around prevention, detection and response. Stopping the manufacture and sale of those medicines is the primary preventative measure, but where defective products make it to market, surveillance and response programs can prevent poor quality medicines from reaching patients. But regulatory reform sought by experts and authorities takes time. More immediate solutions are being developed in the form of better screening technologies. Lieberman is working on a "paper lab" — a type of test that can be used by trained professionals to chemically test the quality of a product before it's administered to a patient. Other laboratory technologies are also under development. One comforting point is that while a significant proportion of the medication circulating in medical facilities in the four African countries was defective, the majority of the products tested met required standards. "[With] two-thirds of the suppliers, all the products [were] good quality, so there are good quality suppliers," said Heide. "But a few of them really have a suspiciously high number of failing samples."
