Using NSAIDs to Treat Cancer

At Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, researchers have developed a new computer program, called DrugPredict. This software uses existing data about drugs already approved by the FDA and disease mechanisms to suggest medications that could potentially treat these diseases.

This program recently predicted that medications like aspirin and indomethacin could be effective against epithelial ovarian cancer cells. Epithelial cancers are a common type of cancer, and are particularly dangerous due to the fact that epithelial tissue is highly regenerative. Aspirin and indomethacin are both NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, that are used to treat pain and inflammation. Aspirin inhibits the COX pathway, and as a result can also a blood thinning medication.

It turns out that aspirin and indomethacin were both effective at killing epithelial ovarian cancer cells in the lab. Indomethacin specifically killed drug-resistant and drug-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer cells, and these cancer cells died even faster when chemotherapy was added in conjunction with indomethacin.

Although this research is promising, I am conflicted by the use of these medications. Using an NSAID can help relieve an occasional headache, but using them in excess can increase one’s risk for gastric ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding. Treating cancer is a multi step process, meaning multiple (and potentially large) doses of these medications.

Would a large amount of aspirin or indomethacin that could possibly be required for this treatment be worth the above risks? I think that most of us would rather have anything other than cancer. However, in practicing non-malfeasance, it might be worth using DrugPredict to look at medications with less serious side effects if we are using them in multiple and potentially large doses to treat epithelial ovarian cancer cancer.