Drug repurposing results in lower-cost drugs for cancer. |
The few drugs approved for cancer are indistinguishable from novel medications. |
We must critically analyze the current drug development model and be creative in implementing new models that benefit society. |
1 Cancer Epidemiology
2 Approaches to Reduce Cancer Mortality
3 Cancer Drug Worldwide Affordability
4 Financial Toxicity
5 Drug Repurposing for Cancer, and Cancer Drug Affordability
6 Drugs Widely Referred to as Repurposed for Cancer but Have Been Anticancer Drugs Since the Beginning
Drug | First indication | Year of first US FDA approval |
---|---|---|
Glucocorticoids | Acute leukemias | 1955 |
Aggressive lymphomas | ||
Progestogens | Recurrent and metastatic | 1960 |
endometrial and renal cancer | ||
Somatostatin analogs | Pituitary tumors | 1998 |
GEP-NETs | ||
Bisphosphonates | Hypercalcemia of malignancy | 1987 |
Breast cancer metastases | ||
Osteolytic bone metastases (MM) | ||
Osteolytic bone metastases (ST) | ||
All-trans retinoic acid | Acute promyelocytic leukemia | 2000 |
Arsenic trioxide | Acute promyelocytic leukemia | 2000 |
6.1 Dexamethasone, Prednisolone, Prednisone
6.2 Medroxyprogesterone, Megestrol Acetate
6.3 Somatostatin Analogs: Octreotide, Lanreotide, and Pasireotide
6.4 Bisphosphonates
6.5 All-Trans Retinoic Acid and Arsenic Trioxide
7 Truly Repurposed Cancer Drugs Whose First Regulatory Labeling was for Non-Cancer Conditions
Drug | First-approval | Year | Cancer approval | Year |
---|---|---|---|---|
BCG | Tuberculosis vaccine | 1989 | Superficial bladder cancer | 1997 |
Thalidomide | Erythema nodosum leprosum | 1998 | Multiple myeloma | 2006 |
Propranolol | CHD and HBP | 1967 | Infantile hemangioma | 2014 |