Painkiller Celebrex May Reduce Risk of Skin Cancer

People with a family history of a skin disorder may be able to reduce the risk of developing skin cancer simply by taking the painkiller and prescription drug celecoxib (Celebrex), new research is suggesting. The study is still in preliminary stages and the drug is not yet approved for this specific use, but results look promising.

The skin disorder, called Gorlin syndrome, usually causes a patient to develop hundreds or thousands of cancerous lesions (basal cell carcinomas). Researchers chose to study this particular form of skin cancer because their goal was to find an element in these high-risk patients that could be transferable to the “normal” population. This could then allow for a form of chemoprevention that could decrease the rate of skin cancers in every person.

Researchers studied patients with basal cell carcinoma who took 200mgs of Canadian prescription drug Celebrex twice a day. Dr. Ervin H. Epstein Jr., senior scientist at the Children’s Hospital of Oakland Research Institute in California reported that these patients had a significantly lower amount of lesions after two years compared to those who were taking a placebo.

However, Celebrex has been found to increase cardiovascular side effects and more research is needed in order to prove its safety.

These findings can be found in the January issue of Cancer Prevention Research. For more of the latest prescription drug and medical research news, visit www.orderonlinedrugs.com

Possible New Drug for Treatment of Brain or Prostate Cancer

A new experimental prescription drug called imetelstat is showing promise as a treatment for glioblastoma brain cancer and prostate cancer, based on results from clinical trials that tested the drug on human prostate cancer cells and rodents who had glioblastoma.

At the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researchers found that imetelstat had a substantial effect on most of the tumor cells. The drug also affected cancer stem cells that cause much of cancer growth.

The mice with glioblastoma were also tested with imetelstat and researchers found that the drug was able to enter the brain from the bloodstream. This is important because most Canadian prescription drugs are not able to cross over from blood to brain.

Imetelstat is also currently being tested as an alternative treatment for breast cancer, lung cancer and lymphocytic leukemia in place of cancer medications such as Arimidex and Avodart.

The drug operates by targeting a mechanism that lets cancer cells to keep dividing. The mechanism is active in most cancers, and because the drug attacks it, imetelstat may be generally useful in treating many different types of cancers.