Experimental drugs already being used to treat breast cancer could also fight lung cancer, research has revealed. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer, is the number one cause of cancer deaths in the world. In the UK, it affects more than 33,000 people each year, and few drug treatments currently exist.
However, scientists at the Institute of Cancer Research in London have discovered that PARP inhibitors, currently being used to treat breast cancer worked in up to half of these tumours.
Experts have stressed that further studies and clinical trials are needed; however they were excited by this initial work.
Author of the study, Dr Chris Lord, said: “This study suggests that PARP inhibitors, treatments already in clinical trials to treat breast and ovarian cancer could also be a promising treatment for patients with certain forms of lung cancer.
“Lung cancer is hard to treat and unfortunately has very poor survival, so there’s an urgent need to find new treatments.
“Our research opens up an exciting new route, by showing how we could repurpose drugs originally designed for use against other forms of cancer.”
Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK and accounts for over a fifth of all cancer deaths. These drugs work by killing cancerous calls and leaving the healthy cells intact.
Dr Harpal Kumar, of Cancer Research UK, which funded the work, said: “Lung cancer is the UK’s biggest cancer killer but it’s proven to be one of the hardest cancers to study and survival rates remain poor.
“We’re making substantial investments in lung cancer research to discover better ways to diagnose and treat the disease. Our hope is that studies like this will lead to more effective treatments for lung cancer patients and ultimately save more lives.”