There has been talk of the miraculous properties of aspirin for a long time. This time around, the latest research shows that this popular pain reliever and anti-inflammatory drug can enhance the effects of drugs used to treat certain types of cancer. How it’s possible?
Cancers caused by a group of genes called RAS have a low sensitivity to treatment. Currently, no anti-cancer drug works directly against them. Some cancers of the pancreas, lung, colon and a small percentage of melanomas belong to this group, the authors of the study, the results of which were published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
During the research, it turned out that adding aspirin to an anti-cancer drug, the active substance of which is sorafenib, significantly improved its effectiveness in the fight against lung cancer and melanoma in mice (rodents had the RAS mutation).
Sorafenib is a protein kinase inhibitor. Previous clinical studies have shown that the drug is not fully effective in patients with lung cancer associated with a RAS mutation. Interestingly, its effectiveness increased significantly after adding aspirin.
How it’s possible? – Combining this drug with a relatively high dose of aspirin activates two molecular processes that together destroy cancer cells. This type of action can prevent resistance to treatment that can develop with sorafenib alone. At the same time, the combination with aspirin may lower the dose of sorafenib required to achieve the desired result, which in turn may reduce side effects and improve the quality of life of patients, argue the authors of the study.