Oral Antifungal Drug Could Help Treat Common Skin Cancer, Stanford Researchers Say

An oral anti-fungal drug can be used to treat a type of skin cancer, a new study from Stanford University found.

According to the study, itraconazole might be useful in treating basal cell carcinoma. The drug belongs to a class of medicines called triazoles and is approved for treatment of fungal infection in the lungs, fingernails and toenails.

For the research, Jean Tang from Stanford University School of Medicine and colleagues conducted a phase two clinical trial on 29 patients who had a total of 101 tumors. The team found that within a month of the therapy, the size and shape of the tumor in most patients decreased.

The study shows how an existing drug could be used to treat common cancers, researchers said.

"New drugs cost about $800 million and an average of 10 years to develop," Tang said in a news release. "We are shortcutting the process by using a drug that's already been around for 25 years and given to tens of thousands of people."

Most of the skin cancers in the U.S. are basal cell carcinomas or BCC, which occurs when skin is regularly exposed to ultraviolet radiation.

According to the researchers, itraconazole works by disrupting a key pathway called Hedgehog signaling pathway, which is vital for the cancer cell to grow.

Tang said that further research is needed to understand how the anti-fungal drug scores when compared with other drug used to treat the cancer. Side-effects of itraconazole include fatigue, dizziness and in rare cases, liver dysfunction, according to the news release.

In a related study, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School researchers had found anti-fungal drug Ciclopirox to be effective against HIV infection.

The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.