Exciting cancer benefit in cheap pill

WHEN Dorothy Bradshaw agreed to take part in a clinical trial for a potential bowel cancer drug five years ago she had low expectations.

After all, this was no expensive cutting-edge therapy from a pharmaceutical giant. It was an antimalarial pill costing just 70p (NZ$1.67) and was based on an ancient Chinese herbal remedy.

Many researchers now believe old-fashioned cheap drugs like this will be the next big breakthrough in cancer treatment. A new study shows a daily dose of aspirin can double the life expectancy of patients with some cancers.

But Bradshaw, 65, certainly did not pin her hopes on the pills she was asked to take every day for two weeks before surgery in November 2010 to remove her tumour.

As she had no side effects, she assumed she was in the placebo group and forgot all about it.

‘‘I was too busy trying to concentrate on survival,’’ said the retired sales assistant who cheerfully rang round her friends and family to say hello when secretly she was saying goodbye.

As she prepared for the operation to remove her colon containing a 3.5cm tumour, Bradshaw agreed to take part in a small clinical trial at St George’s University of London looking at the cancerfighting potential of the antimalarial drug artesunate.

Far from having the backing of a pharmaceutical multinational or a major charity, the researchers at St George’s were conducting the study in their own time with zero funding. Only 20 patients took part and a Belgian manufacturer provided the pills for free.

The results, however, were striking. After two weeks on the tablets, Bradshaw’s tumour had stopped growing and had not spread. Three days later, her colon was successfully removed along with the tumour.

Of the 11 patients in the trial who were on the placebo, six had a recurrence of cancer within 31⁄2 years of whom three died. By contrast, of the nine patients who took artesunate, only one had a recurrence and none died.

‘‘I’m extremely excited about this,’’ said Professor Devinder Kumar, an oncologist. ‘‘We already know this is a safe drug that has been taken by tens of millions of people around the world to treat malaria.

‘‘If we can repeat the results . . . in a larger trial this could be a groundbreaker in the treatment of bowel cancer.’’