New uses for old drugs

If you're a regular reader of this blog then you may recall that for the last few months I've been taking the drug metformin. Metformin is widely used in the treatment of diabetes however I'm taking it because there is some scientific evidence to suggest that metformin may also have some beneficial effects for people with cancer. As metformin has been around for many years it's cheap and as it has been taken by many hundreds of thousands of people the side effect profile of the drug is known to be relatively low risk. This is quite a contrast to most oncology drugs which tend to be both expensive and to have high levels of potentially dangerous side effects.

 

Metformin is just one of a number of cheap, widely taken non-oncology drugs for which there is some scientific evidence suggesting that these drugs may have anti-cancer effects. Additional research is needed to validate that these drugs really do offer benefits to cancer patients but performing this research requires considerable investment of both time and money. For this reason few commonplace non-oncology drugs have made the transition to being fully recognised treatments for cancer. This is a great pity and seems to me to be a missed opportunity. I was very excited then to learn of a new initiative aimed at encouraging further research into such drugs. The initiative, known as the 'Repurposing drugs in oncology project' (ReDO for short), lists the following aims on its website:

 

• identify the most promising drugs for further clinical investigation;
• review and bring to the attention of clinical investigators the data for these drugs;
• document how these drugs can be combined with existing therapies, or with other repurposed drugs;
• develop clinical trials to provide positive or negative evidence of efficacy and
• where necessary, suggest areas where further pre-clinical work is necessary.

  

I wish the people and organisations behind the ReDO project every success in achieving their aims and in seeing some of the drugs through to adoption as recognised treatments. If you want to know more about ReDO there is a good article here.

 

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Katie and I met with my oncologist last week. He was pleased to hear that I've been feeling well and has suggested that I try coming off the steroids that I've been taking. I'm not due to see him now until after my next CT scan at the end of July, at that meeting we'll find out if the cyclophosphamide is working.

 

On Friday last week Katie and I spent the day at the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford. Neither of us had been to an air show before and we both enjoyed the day. Without doubt the stars of the show were the Red Arrows. They are celebrating their 50th season of display flying this year and put on a terrific show. It really is incredible how close they fly together - a fantastic example of trusting one's teammates!

 

I've not taken photo's of planes before and had great fun trying. Here are some of the shots that I got. The Red Arrows in formation (click or double click on image to see larger version):

 

 

These guys really do fly very close together:

 

 

I'm not usually in favour of smoking but I'll make an exception in this case:

 

 

To celebrate their 50 year anniversary, the Red Arrows were joined in their display by the team leaders of the Breitling, the Italian, the French and the Swiss aerobatic display teams: