Health & Medicine

This Painkiller Has Anti-Cancer Fighting Properties

Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Jan 13, 2016 02:33 PM EST

New research suggests that a common painkiller may help in the treatment of cancer. 

During the study, researchers in Belgium examined an analysis of medical records for cancer patients treated with the diclofenac before tumor removal; it is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) type of painkiller that's used to treat fever, migraines and rheumatoid arthritis. Findings showed that it had a significant impact on the risk of metastasis and overall reduced risk of mortality, according to UPI

"It's still somewhat surprising that there is still so much we don't understand about how many of the standard drugs we use every day, like diclofenac, work," said Dr. Pan Pantziarka, a researcher at the Anticancer Fund, in a news release. "But the more we learn, the more we can see that these drugs are multi-targeted agents with interesting and useful effects on multiple pathways of interest in oncology."

There are currently four clinical trials investigating diclofenac's effects on cancer, including three that use the painkiller as part of TL-118, an experimental four-drug combination.

"It's still somewhat surprising that there is still so much we don't understand about how many of the standard drugs we use every day, like diclofenac, work," Dr. Pan Pantziarka, a researcher at the Anticancer Fund, said in a press release. "But the more we learn, the more we can see that these drugs are multi-targeted agents with interesting and useful effects on multiple pathways of interest in oncology."

Diclofenac is also sold as Cambia, Solaraze, Voltaren and Zispor.

The study is published in ecancermedicalscience.

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