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Patients who happened to take common allergy pills during immunotherapy seemed to live longer in a large records study. A simple randomised trial would show whether the pills really help.
A 2022 analysis of MD Anderson records (Li and colleagues, Cancer Cell) found that H1-antihistamine use during checkpoint inhibitor therapy was associated with improved survival in melanoma and lung cancer, with mechanistic work suggesting histamine-HRH1 signalling in macrophages drives T-cell dysfunction. Antihistamines cost pennies and are extremely safe. The proposal is a placebo-controlled randomised trial of a non-sedating H1-antihistamine (for example fexofenadine or loratadine) added to standard checkpoint inhibitor therapy in non-small cell lung cancer, with a plasma histamine biomarker sub-study.
Most patients with newly diagnosed advanced non-squamous lung cancer that lacks a targetable mutation should receive chemotherapy plus pembrolizumab; those with PD-L1 of 50% or more may reasonably receive pembrolizumab alone. About one in five patients is alive at five years, compared with roughly one in ten with chemotherapy alone. Patients with EGFR or ALK alterations were excluded and should have targeted therapy first.
One bottleneck page and 21 idea pages on OnCo cite this paper by its DOI; this record gives the citation a page of its own so a reader can follow it without leaving OnCo. Read the abstract above alongside the citing pages listed under Related; the record was created automatically from the Europe PMC entry and its figures have not been checked by hand.
Shares No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs, MD Anderson Cancer Center, No one can predict who responds to immunotherapy, Melanoma.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.
Shares The Repurposing Drugs in Oncology (ReDO) Project, No incentive to repurpose cheap drugs.