Adding aspirin can enhance the efficacy of anticancer drugs

On December 6th, the cancer network caused by mutations in a group of RAS genes has lower therapeutic responsiveness, and there are currently no drugs directly targeting them.

In a new study, researchers from the University of Queensland in Australia found that adding aspirin to some existing anticancer drugs would increase their resistance to a group of tumors that did not respond to existing therapies. This group of tumors includes pancreatic cancer, lung cancer and colorectal cancer with a very low survival rate and a small fraction of melanoma.

The researchers found that the addition of aspirin to the cancer inhibitor drug Sorafenib strongly increased its effectiveness against lung cancer and melanoma mouse models of RAS mutations.

In a multicenter phase III clinical trial of non-small cell lung cancer, sorafenib alone provided only a small improvement in the patient's condition. The new study suggests that combining it with aspirin may benefit patients who have RAS mutations that do not respond to other therapies.

This combination of drugs may potentially reduce the dose of sorafenib required to improve quality of life by reducing adverse reactions that can cause some patients to stop treatment.

The researchers found that the combination of sorafenib with a relatively high dose of aspirin activates both molecular processes, and the two molecular processes together kill cancer cells that develop RAS mutations. This dual activation may also prevent tumor resistance to this combination therapy. This therapeutic resistance can be produced when only sorafenib is used.

These researchers believe that this combination therapy may increase the time to disease progression in cancer patients. They believe that the addition of aspirin may also potentially prevent tumor recurrence in patients.

The researchers cautioned that the adverse effects of aspirin also need to be considered, but for patients without other treatment options, the required dose of aspirin is most likely clinically controllable.

These researchers hope that clinical trials of this combination therapy will soon be carried out in patients with lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancer who are not responding to other therapies.