A drug initially used to help people with their alcohol problems may soon be used for the treatment of cancer.
While disulfiram already exhibited its potency in killing cancer cells and slowing down the growth of tumors way back in the 1970s, it did not really get attention as a cancer treatment partly because scientists could not see eye to eye on how it worked. However, a new study on the potency of the drug as an anti-cancer may finally give it the recognition it deserves.
The study, which was conducted through of the partnership of Danish-Czech-U.S. teams, led by Jiri Bartek, of the Danish Cancer Society Research Center in Copenhagen, browsed on the 240, 000 cases of cancer between the year 2000 and 2013 in Denmark. There, it was revealed that the cancer death rate among the more than 3000 patients who took and stayed with Antabuse, the brand of disulfiram, was 34 percent lower than those who stopped taking the drug.
Apart from lengthening the lives of cancer patients, the researchers also revealed that disulfiram slowed down the growth of breast cancer tumors in mice, especially when combined with a copper supplement that boosts its effects. The use of the drug in mice also revealed that the disulfiram’s main metabolite, ditiocarb, forms a complex with copper, blocking the machinery that cells use to dispose of misfolded and unneeded proteins. Because of this, protein builds up in cancer cells, causing them to be stressed and eventually die.
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