Heart Drug Digoxin may prevent prostate cancer

Researchers suggest that Digoxin, a popular heart drug, may play a pivotal role in the prevention of prostate cancer. The study that combined basic laboratory science with epidemiology found a 24 percent reduction in the risk of developing prostate cancer in men who were taking Digoxin.

The study was an attempt to identify available drugs that can be used in the treatment of prostate cancer through a process known as drug repositioning. This, however, is not the first attempt at drug repositioning. The process has been tried several times before and every time one branch of scientific enquiry or the other had presented certain flaws. But, according to researcher Elizabeth Platz, professor of epidemiology at the John Hopkins University, this time with multi-disciplinary teams of scientists coming together the flaws were overcome by the combined strength of epidemiology and basic sciences.

Platz says, "Epidemiologists and basic scientists often do not understand each other, as we often are only clear on our own strengths and the other's weaknesses." She further adds, "When we combined the basic science and the epidemiology approaches, the flaws were not the same and were covered by their respective strengths." When asked why the team chose to consider existing drugs only, Platz said, "If you use drugs that are already available then you have a long history of safety research that does not necessarily need to be redone, and we can move more quickly to testing whether the drug will actually work in a new setting."

In the first phase of the research, an in vitro prostate cancer toxicity screening of 3187 compounds was conducted. Digoxin ranked top in this phase in its ability to prevent cancer cell proliferation. In the following phase, the epidemiology team took over and they analyzed the data of 47,884 men who were taking Digoxin during the period 1986-2006. It was found that regular users of Digoxin recorded a 24 percent lower risk of developing prostate cancer while patients who were using the drug for more than ten years had a 46 percent lower risk.

However, the researchers clarified that they were in no way suggesting that Digoxin should be used to prevent prostate cancer. "This is not a drug you'd give to healthy people," Platz. Instead she stressed that the team would now work towards finding out how Digoxin targets prostate cancer. Knowing this would, in turn, help to conclude whether Digoxin can indeed be used in the prevention of prostate cancer.

Platz is the co-author of the study along with Srinivasan Yegnasubramanian, M.D., Ph.D., and assistant professor of oncology at Johns Hopkins. The findings of the study were published in a journal called Cancer Discover, published by the American Association for Cancer Research.