Healthy Skepticism Library item: 1263

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Publication type: news

Prozac could fight cancer
femail.co.uk 2003 Jun 2

Full text:

The anti-depressant drug Prozac could be used to treat a form of cancer – and possibly other forms of the disease – scientists said.

Their discovery was made when investigating the effect that the body’s naturally-produced chemicals had upon Burkitt’s lymphoma, a type of cancer most commonly affecting children.

An international team of scientists, led by Professor John Gordon and Dr Nicholas Barnes from Birmingham University, found that drugs such as fluoxetine – the chemical name for Prozac – could be used to treat this form of cancer.

The breakthrough is considered to be particularly important for Aids sufferers as they are least able to cope with the strong side effects of an intensive course of chemotherapy.

Prof Gordon, who published his team’s findings in the US journal Blood today, said: “This new development is very exciting. We found that by increasing the dosage fluoxetine, the Burkitt’s cells are killed.

“The initial indicators are exceedingly positive and we are already in discussions with clinicians about using these drugs as a therapy for Burkitt’s lymphoma. We are now examining the effect of fluoxetine on other cancer types.”

Ken Campbell of the Leukaemia Research Fund added: “While there is still some way to go before doctors can start prescribing these drugs to patients with this cancer, these findings could be of major importance to those patients with the Aids-related form of the disease, and to those patients who are not in a position to tolerate the intensive chemotherapy.

“Alternative treatments such as this which are inexpensive and have low levels of toxicity would be a major step forward in the treatment of this disease.”