Rheumatoid Arthritis Drug For Treating Melanoma Skin Cancer

An arthritis drug called leflunomide could now be used for inhibiting the growth of malignant melanoma. This was discovered by a research of the University of East Anglia and Children’s Hospital Boston and promises an effective new treatment for one of the deadliest forms of skin cancer.

Reporting in the March 24 edition of the journal Nature, the researchers found that leflunomide, a drug commonly used for treating rheumatoid arthritis, also inhibits the growth of malignant melanoma.

Melanoma is the most aggressive form of skin cancer and its incidence is increasing. More than 10,000 patients in the UK are diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer each year. This tumor can be removed with surgery without problems if caught early, but the survival rates for patients whose tumour is already spreading are very low. Around 2000 people a year in the UK die from malignant melanoma because the cancer has returned after being removed surgically.

University of East Anglia scientists Dr Grant Wheeler and Dr Matt Tomlinson conducted a rigorous screen of thousands of compounds, looking for those that affect the development of pigment cells in tadpoles. They identified a number of compounds that affected pigment cell development and have now shown with their US collaborators at Children’s Hospital Boston that leflunomide significantly restricts tumour growth in mouse models.

Combining leflunomide with PLX4720, a new experimental melanoma drug, the scientists found that the effect was even more powerful and this almost blocked the tumour growth completely.

The next stage is for clinical trials to be conducted into the use of leflunomide to fight melanoma. This process should be faster than usual and a new treatment for melanoma could be available within about five years because leflunomide is already licensed to treat arthritis.

“This is a really exciting discovery, making use of an existing drug specifically to target melanoma,” said Dr Grant Wheeler, of UEA’s School of Biological Sciences.

Source: insciences.org