{"entity":{"id":"drug-repurposing","kind":"technology","name":"Systematic drug repurposing","aka":[],"tldr":"Testing cheap old drugs, aspirin, metformin, statins, beta-blockers, as cancer treatments, because they are safe, available and sometimes work.","summary":"Large randomised trials of repurposed agents have mostly been negative: metformin did not improve invasive disease-free survival in the adjuvant breast cancer trial MA.32 (NCT01101438), while aspirin continues to be tested for adjuvant benefit (Add-Aspirin, NCT02804815) and is established in Lynch syndrome prevention. AI screening of prescription and expression databases now proposes candidates faster than trials can test them, and funding for non-proprietary agents is the real bottleneck.","status":"phase-3","asOf":"2026-09-08","links":[{"label":"MA.32 adjuvant metformin (NCT01101438)","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT01101438"},{"label":"Add-Aspirin (NCT02804815)","url":"https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT02804815"}],"tags":["frontier"],"related":[],"cancers":["colorectal","breast-hr-positive"],"sections":["drug-discovery","prevention"],"technologies":["chemoprevention","ai-drug-design","exercise-oncology"],"targets":[],"drugs":[],"companies":[],"institutions":[],"pathways":[],"terms":["real-world-evidence"],"trials":[],"people":[],"bottlenecks":[],"keyPapers":[],"journals":[],"dependsOn":[],"notes":[],"principle":"Approved drugs with known safety are tested against cancer endpoints, either on mechanistic grounds or on signals mined from real-world prescription data.","strengths":["Known safety and cost, so adoption is immediate if positive","Attractive for prevention and low-resource settings","AI can prioritise candidates from existing data"],"limitations":["No commercial sponsor, so trials are slow and underfunded","Observational signals are heavily confounded","Major trials have been negative"]},"route":"/technologies/drug-repurposing/","neighbours":{"cancer":[{"id":"colorectal","kind":"cancer","name":"Colorectal cancer","route":"/cancers/colorectal/"},{"id":"breast-hr-positive","kind":"cancer","name":"HR-positive / HER2-negative breast cancer","route":"/cancers/breast-hr-positive/"}],"section":[{"id":"drug-discovery","kind":"section","name":"Drug Discovery Platforms","route":"/fronts/drug-discovery/"},{"id":"prevention","kind":"section","name":"Prevention & Risk","route":"/fronts/prevention/"}],"technology":[{"id":"ai-drug-design","kind":"technology","name":"AI-driven drug & target discovery","route":"/technologies/ai-drug-design/"},{"id":"aspirin-cancer-prevention","kind":"technology","name":"Aspirin for cancer prevention and adjuvant therapy","route":"/technologies/aspirin-cancer-prevention/"},{"id":"chemoprevention","kind":"technology","name":"Chemoprevention & risk-reducing surgery","route":"/technologies/chemoprevention/"},{"id":"exercise-oncology","kind":"technology","name":"Exercise & lifestyle oncology","route":"/technologies/exercise-oncology/"}],"term":[{"id":"real-world-evidence","kind":"term","name":"Real-world evidence","route":"/terms/real-world-evidence/"}],"roadmap":[{"id":"cure-paths","kind":"roadmap","name":"Paths to cures: interception, eradication, control","route":"/roadmaps/cure-paths/"},{"id":"frontier-2035","kind":"roadmap","name":"Radical oncology: what could change the war by 2035","route":"/roadmaps/frontier-2035/"}],"drug":[{"id":"ivermectin","kind":"drug","name":"Ivermectin","route":"/drugs/ivermectin/"},{"id":"mebendazole","kind":"drug","name":"Mebendazole","route":"/drugs/mebendazole/"}],"trial":[{"id":"add-aspirin","kind":"trial","name":"Add-Aspirin","route":"/trials/add-aspirin/"},{"id":"alascca","kind":"trial","name":"ALASCCA","route":"/trials/alascca/"},{"id":"nct07487805","kind":"trial","name":"ICONIC: ivermectin combined with immune checkpoint inhibition in cancer (University of Florida phase 2)","route":"/trials/nct07487805/"},{"id":"nct05318469","kind":"trial","name":"Ivermectin with balstilimab or pembrolizumab in metastatic triple-negative breast cancer (Cedars-Sinai phase 1/2)","route":"/trials/nct05318469/"},{"id":"olanzapine-appetite-tmh","kind":"trial","name":"Low-dose olanzapine for cancer anorexia (Tata Memorial)","route":"/trials/olanzapine-appetite-tmh/"}],"paper":[{"id":"paper-mansoori-mebendazole-gi-cancer-phase-2a-sci-rep-2021","kind":"paper","name":"A phase 2a clinical study on the safety and efficacy of individualized dosed mebendazole in patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer","route":"/key-papers/paper-mansoori-mebendazole-gi-cancer-phase-2a-sci-rep-2021/"},{"id":"paper-straughn-ivermectin-hope-versus-hype-2025","kind":"paper","name":"Ivermectin treatment for gynecologic cancers: hope versus hype","route":"/key-papers/paper-straughn-ivermectin-hope-versus-hype-2025/"},{"id":"paper-tang-ivermectin-potential-anticancer-pharmacol-res-2021","kind":"paper","name":"Ivermectin, a potential anticancer drug derived from an antiparasitic drug","route":"/key-papers/paper-tang-ivermectin-potential-anticancer-pharmacol-res-2021/"},{"id":"paper-patil-mebendazole-glioma-phase-1-cancer-med-2020","kind":"paper","name":"Reverse swing-M, phase 1 study of repurposing mebendazole in recurrent high-grade glioma","route":"/key-papers/paper-patil-mebendazole-glioma-phase-1-cancer-med-2020/"},{"id":"paper-juarez-ivermectin-repositioned-cancer-drug-2018","kind":"paper","name":"The multitargeted drug ivermectin: from an antiparasitic agent to a repositioned cancer drug","route":"/key-papers/paper-juarez-ivermectin-repositioned-cancer-drug-2018/"}],"institution":[{"id":"ku-cancer-center","kind":"institution","name":"The University of Kansas Cancer Center","route":"/institutions/ku-cancer-center/"}]}}