Anti-malarial drugs can be used for metastases of breast cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Anti-malarial drugs used for more than 60 years are currently being studied for use in breast cancer patients in whom chemotherapy has not had a significant effect.
Dr. Jenny Chang, director of the Cancer Center in Houston, conducts a study on the efficacy and safety of chloroquine in combination with chemotherapy as a possible treatment for patients with advanced or metastatic breast cancer.
The combination of chloroquine and standard chemotherapy has already proved effective in mice with this disease.
The main goal of this clinical study is to determine the effectiveness of therapy in different patients. Zhang's team emphasizes a combination of chloroquine with Taxane (paclitaxel) or Taxane-like drugs (ABRAXANE, Ixabepilone or docetaxel). The active ingredient in Taxane-like preparations - paclitaxel - is a natural product with antitumor activity.
When chloroquine was administered to mice with metastatic breast cancer, an increase in the pH level in certain cell components was observed, which led to the death of cancer stem cells.
Scientists are very hopeful that a new combination of drugs, based on the repeated use of long-existing drugs, will significantly increase the effectiveness of treatment for women with breast cancer.
Chloroquine began to be used in the late 1940s for the prevention and treatment of malaria. Chloroquine gently suppresses the immune system, so it is used in some autoimmune diseases, like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus. Chloroquine is also considered as a treatment in patients with relapsing multiple myeloma, pancreatic cancer, glioblastoma multiforme and small cell lung cancer.
[