Perioperative beta-blocker plus COX-2 inhibitor to reduce metastasis after surgery
Surgery stress may help hidden cancer cells spread. A five-day course of two cheap old drugs around the operation might block that, and small trials look promising.
Surgical stress releases catecholamines and prostaglandins that suppress anti-tumour immunity and promote metastatic seeding in animal models. Phase 2 trials of propranolol plus etodolac around surgery in breast and colorectal cancer (Ben-Eliyahu and colleagues) showed favourable changes in tumour transcriptomic markers of metastasis and immune suppression, and a small colorectal trial suggested reduced recurrence. Both drugs cost cents. The proposal is a publicly funded, multinational phase 3 in colorectal and breast cancer with disease-free survival as the primary endpoint.
- No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs · Old, cheap drugs with anti-cancer signals never get the trials they need because no one profits from the result.
- Metastasis is understood least and studied last · Metastasis causes about nine in ten cancer deaths but gets a small fraction of research money and almost no trials of its own.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- IdeaCheap perioperative beta-blocker plus anti-inflammatory to blunt surgical stress
Shares No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs, Metastasis is understood least and studied last, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaA public fund and label pathway to trial generic drugs against cancer
Shares No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaStrip the platelet coat off travelling tumour cells in ctDNA-positive patients
Shares No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs, Metastasis is understood least and studied last, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaA blood test for the pre-metastatic niche
Shares Metastasis is understood least and studied last, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaFactorial trials that test several cheap generics at once in the adjuvant setting
Shares No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs, Colorectal cancer.
- IdeaMetastasis prevention as a formal indication with its own trials and regulatory pathway
Shares Metastasis is understood least and studied last, Colorectal cancer.
- TrialAdd-Aspirin
Shares No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.
- InstitutionChampalimaud Foundation – Champalimaud Clinical Centre
Shares Metastasis is understood least and studied last, HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer, Colorectal cancer.