The potency of platinum-based chemotherapy drugs can be improved by combining them with a drug intended to help diabetes patients.

Research conducted at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, US, has found that combining platinum-based drugs with the diabetes drug, rosiglitazone, was up to three times more effective than using the platinum-based drugs on their own.

In the study using mice, the researchers found that combining a platinum chemotherapy agent with rosiglitazone significantly improved the impact the drugs had on halting or shrinking tumours.

The results, published in Cancer Cell journal, raise the prospect that the combination could allow for the use of platinum-based drugs to be extended to cancers that have in the past resisted this kind of chemotherapy.

However, senior author Bruce Spiegelman warned that there remains some way to go before this research can have an application in tackling human cancers.

Sources:
Diabetes Drug Boosts Chemo's Effectiveness
7/05/07
http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/05/07/hscout604350.html

Diabetes Drug Dramatically Boosts Power Of Platinum Chemotherapy
8/05/07
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/05/070507123041.htm

Diabetes Drug Boosts Chemo's Effectiveness
7/05/07
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/07/AR2007050700560.html

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