E-Book

E-Book 2nd Congress

  • Drug Repurposing approach in colorectal cancer
  • Seyedeh Nasim Mirbahari,1 Hanieh Rahimi,2 Ali Aghaei,3 Hamid Asadzadeh Aghdaei,4 Nayeralsadat Fatemi,5,*
    1. 1. Basic and Molecular Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Disorders Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
    2. Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
    3. Department of Biology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
    4. 1. Basic and Molecular Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Disorders Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
    5. 1. Basic and Molecular Epidemiology of Gastrointestinal Disorders Research Center, Research Institute for Gastroenterology and Liver Diseases, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran


  • Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer in the world, accounting for 11% of cancer cases. Also, this cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. Currently, the treatment of CRC mainly includes surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, target therapy, and immunotherapy. Among these treatments, surgery and chemotherapy (with 5-FU, oxaliplatin ) are the main treatments for this malignancy. Considering the high cost, time-consuming and high risk of failure during the production process of new drugs, the use of repurposed drugs in the pharmaceutical industry for the treatment of cancers seems logical. Of course, this strategy is new for cancer treatment and these drugs cannot replace chemotherapy drugs, but they can be used together with chemotherapy drugs to increase the effectiveness of these drugs and to complete the cancer treatment process.
  • Methods: In the present study, by using the keywords drug repurposing and CRC and using PubMed and Google scholar databases, we reached a list of drugs, which usually have their therapeutic use, but it has been shown in studies that they can be used to treat CRC. Among these drugs, we can mention Metformin, Celecoxib, Aspirin, Diclofenac, Cimetidine, Disulfiram, Doxycycline, Niclosamide, Chloroquine, and Artesunate.
  • Results: For example, it has been shown that metformin, which is used as the main treatment for type 2 diabetes, prevents the growth of cancer cells and metastases in colorectal cancer. Diclofenac, aspirin, and celecoxib are also NSAIDs and are used to reduce inflammation and pain. These drugs are COX-2 inhibitors, and by inhibiting COX-2, they prevent the development of CRC.
  • Conclusion: By studying more of these drugs, instead of using drugs with high side effects, drugs that were usually prescribed to treat simpler diseases and had much fewer side effects can be used.
  • Keywords: Colorectal cancer, Chemotherapy, Drug repurposing