Cancer drug surprise finding

March 23, 2009

“A type of drug designed to stunt tumour growth has actually been found to fuel cancer if given at too low a dose,” BBC News reported. It said the experimental drug cilengitide, aimed at inhibiting cancer growth by targeting the tumours’ blood vessels, actually stimulated the growth of cancers when given in low doses. It said that the cancer drugs Avastin and Sutent act in a similar way, but have been proven to work and were not covered in this research.

This surprising discovery was made in a laboratory study of cilengitide in mice. Cilengitide has not yet been licensed for use in patients, and is still in its experimental phase where it has proven to be of limited effectiveness so far. The researchers say that these results could explain why these trials have not been as promising as hoped.