A Potent “super aspirin” that can cause cancer cells to self-destruct has been developed by scientists.
The hybrid version is much more powerful than the conventional painkiller but far less toxic.
Prolonged use of traditional aspirin can cause stomach ulcers and kidney failure.
But the new compound, known as NOSH, can be used in lower doses and has fewer side effects.
In tests on mice, it has been shown to shrink cancer cells by 85 per cent.
The pill is effective against 11 different forms of cancer, including colon, pancreatic, prostate, breast and leukaemia, researchers have found.
Hailing the breakthrough yesterday, Professor Khosrow Kashfi said: “If what we have seen in animals can be translated to humans it could be used in conjunction with other drugs to shrink tumours before chemotherapy or surgery.”
Professor Kashfi, of the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at The City College of New York, added: “The key components of this new compound are that it is very, very potent and yet it has minimal toxicity to normal cells.”
Previous research has shown that ordinary aspirin can reduce the size of some tumours by up to half. But prolonged use of the old form of the drug can have serious side effects such as excessive bleeding.
Professor Kashfi said: “There’s a lot of data on aspirin showing that when taken on a regular basis, on average it reduces the risk of development of colon cancer by about 50 per cent compared to non-users.”
Read more: www.express.co.uk
March 22, 2012