Drug for cocaine addiction could help treat colorectal cancer, research shows

In a 'surprising' discovery, a drug used to treat cocaine addiction could be a safe and effective form of treatment of advanced colorectal cancer, a new Canadian study suggests.

In a “surprising” discovery, a drug used to treat cocaine addiction could be a safe and effective form of treatment for advanced colorectal cancer, according to a new Canadian study.

University of Ottawa researchers tested vanoxerine in mice and tumour samples taken from human patients and found that the drug was able to effectively block the activity of colorectal cancer stem cells.

The findings of this research — seven years in the making — were published in the Nature Cancer journal on Tuesday.

“It seems like the drug is rewiring the genome of the cancer cells in a way that it makes them more obvious or easier to detect by the immune system, which is quite an impactful finding in terms of future treatment of colon cancer,” said Dr. Yannick Benoit, lead study author and associate professor in the department of cellular and molecular medicine at the University of Ottawa.

Cancer stem cells are the “nastiest or most aggressive cells” found inside of tumours, Benoit said, and suppressing this cell population could increase the likelihood of successfully treating patients.

“We think that having vanoxerine combined in the future with the standard drugs of chemotherapy that are used, we could have, higher chances of success in treating patients,” he told Global News in an interview Wednesday.

Vanoxerine, which is given via an intramuscular injection, is currently not approved for use in Canada or the United States.

It has been tested in various clinical trials for Parkinson’s disease, depression and cocaine dependence.