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Antimalarial drugs may be used for breast cancer metastasis
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Antimalarial drugs, used for more than 60 years, are now being studied for use in breast cancer patients who have not responded significantly to chemotherapy.
Dr. Jenny Chang, director of the Houston Cancer Center, is leading a study of the effectiveness and safety of using chloroquine in combination with chemotherapy as a possible treatment for patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
A combination of chloroquine and standard chemotherapy has already proven effective in mice with the disease.
The main objective of this clinical trial is to determine the effectiveness of the therapy in different patients. Zhang's team is focusing on the combination of chloroquine with Taxane (paclitaxel) or Taxane-like drugs (ABRAXANE, Ixabepilone or docetaxel). The active ingredient in Taxane-like drugs is paclitaxel, a natural product with antitumor activity.
When chloroquine was administered to mice with metastatic breast cancer, an increase in pH levels was observed in certain cellular components, leading to the death of cancer stem cells.
Scientists are very hopeful that a new drug combination based on the repurposing of long-standing drugs could significantly improve the effectiveness of treatment for women with breast cancer.
Chloroquine was first used in the late 1940s to prevent and treat malaria. Chloroquine is a mild immune suppressant, so it is used in some autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Chloroquine is also being considered as a treatment for patients with relapsed multiple myeloma, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma multiforme, and small cell lung cancer.
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