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Adding aspirin to some existing cancer drugs could increase their effectiveness against a group of tumours resistant to treatment, scientists are hoping clinical trials could soon be underway for people with lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers that have not responded to other therapies.
Cancers driven by mutations in a group of genes, known as RAS, had a low response to treatments with currently no drug directly targeting them. The group of tumours includes some pancreatic, lung and colorectal cancers with very low survival rates, as well as a small percentage of melanomas.
Addition of aspirin to a cancer inhibitor drug, Sorafenib, strongly enhanced its effectiveness against mouse models of lung cancer and melanoma with RAS mutations.
In a multicentre phase three trial for non-small cell lung cancer, Sorafenib alone showed a marginal improvement for patients. Latest research suggests its combination with aspirin could benefit patients with RAS mutations who don’t otherwise respond to other treatments.
The drug combination could potentially reduce the dose of Sorafenib required, improving quality of life for patients by reducing adverse impacts that can lead some patients to stop treatment.
Combining it with a relatively high dose of aspirin, two molecular processes are activated and together they work to kill RAS mutant cancer cells. This dual activation also might prevent the tumours acquiring resistance to the treatment, which can happen when the inhibitor drug is given alone.
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