Common painkiller can slow cancer growth rate

One of the most-widely prescribed pain and anti-inflammation drug may also slow the growth rate of cancer, a new study has found.

The study focused on the effects of celecoxib or Celebrex. It targets an enzyme called “cyclooxygenase-2” (COX-2), which is linked to pain and inflammation, researchers said. This enzyme is also critical in the creation of prostaglandins, compounds that act like hormones and play a role in promoting tumour growth, they said.

COX-2 expression is typically low in normal tissue, but high in multiple types of cancers, researchers said. “We were actually interested in determining what a particular signalling pathway does in cancer,” said Joseph Kissil from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in the US.

“In the process, we found that it activates genes that promote survival of tumour cells and that they do so by turning on enzymes involved in inflammation, including COX2, which anti-inflammatory drugs like Celebrex inhibit,” said Kissil. Researchers conducted animal studies tracking the effects of celecoxib on the growth of cancer cells from a tumour type known as neurofibromatosis type II (NF2).

The findings were published in the journal Cancer Research.