Drug repositioning in cancer

Drug repositioning in cancer: the current situation in Japan.:

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Drug repositioning in cancer: the current situation in Japan.

Cancer Sci. 2020 Jan 19;:

Authors: Masuda T, Tsuruda Y, Matsumoto Y, Uchida H, Nakayama KI, Mimori K

Abstract

Cancer is a leading cause of mortality worldwide, and the incidence continues to increase. Despite major research aimed at discovering and developing novel and effective anticancer drugs, oncology drug development is a lengthy and costly process, with high attrition rates. Drug repositioning (DR, also referred to as drug repurposing), the process of finding new uses for approved noncancer drugs, has been gaining popularity in recent years. DR now has become a powerful alternative strategy to discover and develop novel anticancer drug candidates from the existing approved drug space. Indeed, the availability of several large established libraries of clinical drugs and rapid advances in disease biology, genomics/transcriptomics/proteomics, and bioinformatics has accelerated the pace of activity-based, literature-based, and in silico DR, thereby improving safety and reducing costs. However, DR still faces financial obstacles in clinical trials, which could limit its practical use in the clinic. Here, we provide a brief review of DR in cancer and discuss difficulties in the development of DR for clinical use. Furthermore, we introduce some promising DR candidates for anticancer therapy in Japan.

PMID: 31957175 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]