Anti-malarial drug quinacrine effective for treatment of head and neck cancer

Birmingham, UK: Quinacrine, an anti-malarial drug, can make standard chemotherapy for the treatment of neck and head cancer more effective -- is the finding of a recently published study in the Oncotarget journal. The drug was also found to be effective in reducing the growth of cancer cells grown in the lab, and in tumours.

The drug was used extensively during World War Two to prevent and treat malaria in soldiers fighting in mosquito-ridden areas.

Current treatment for neck and head cancer relies heavily on highly toxic treatments but despite this, the outcomes are poor. With the treatment, only three to seven in 10 people manage to survive the disease for five or more years.

The drug, quinacrine, was tested through a number of methods, including on cell cultures, in tumour biopsies from patients with head and neck cancer, and in mice.

The research results, show that in mice quinacrine can make standard chemotherapy more effective - suggesting a lower dose may be used, reducing toxic side effects. The results also showed the drug to be effective at reducing the growth of cancer cells grown in the lab, and in tumours.

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Significantly, the research in mice showed a combination therapy of quinacrine and chemotherapy, and so allowed for the chemotherapy dose to be halved while still maintaining the same impairment of tumour growth.

Lead author Dr Jennifer Bryant, of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education, said: “This is important research in the laboratory and demonstrates the real potential in repurposing drugs.

“The team is now looking to translate these research findings into a clinical trial for head and neck cancer patients.”

Also Read: Immunotherapy better than chemotherapy for some Head and Neck Cancers

Corresponding author Professor Hisham Mehanna, Director of the Institute of Head and Neck Studies and Education at the University of Birmingham and Consultant Head, Neck and Thyroid Surgeon at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said drug repurposing is particularly exciting due to known safety in humans and low cost, which mean they can be rapidly translated from the lab to the clinic.

He added: “Head and neck cancer patients have limited treatment options, often associated with severe, potentially life-threatening, side effects, it is important, therefore, that we find different treatments.

“My team has developed a drug repurposing platform called ‘AcceleraTED’ which assesses drugs that treat other non-cancerous conditions and have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Agency to see if they have the potential to be effective anti-cancer agents against head and neck cancer.

“This research is an example of the success we are having in the laboratory through this platform in identifying promising drugs that can be candidates to be used in patients in the clinic.”

To read the complete study follow the link: https://doi.org/10.18632/oncotarget.27156