A common asthma drug slowed pancreatic cancer tumour growth in mice and made standard chemotherapy more effective, scientists said, indicating a possible new way to fight the deadly disease.
Researchers at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston examined the effects of cromolyn, an asthma and allergy medication that has been used for more than 40 years, against cancer of the pancreas.
Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, they said combining cromolyn with chemotherapy was nearly three times better at retarding growth of pancreatic tumours in mice compared to the use of chemotherapy agent gemcitabine alone.
Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly cancers, killing more than 95 per cent of people diagnosed with it. Half die within six months of being diagnosed. The pancreas is a gland situated behind the stomach.
“Our goal is to offer longer life to these patients, and the combination of these two agents may well do that,” Craig Logsdon, the study’s lead author, said in a statement.
