Drug repurposing: Beta-lactam antibiotic with high efficacy against colorectal cancer

About 1 in 25 people will develop colorectal cancer during their lifetime, and the disease leads to one-third of cancer deaths in the US. Since many cancers develop resistance against therapeutics after some time, targeted therapies usually only work for subsets of patients, and relapses often occur after an initial therapy success, the need for new therapeutics in this field is high.

Our researchers have collected very promising initial animal efficacy data for repurposing a beta-lactam antibiotic for colorectal cancer. The drug showed excellent results both for less and further advanced stages of colorectal cancer. In addition, it is known to have no severe side effects at concentrations used in antimicrobial therapy and showed a very promising safety profile in our researcher’s concomitant toxicity studies. Our researchers are currently running a larger animal study for colorectal cancer and will also shortly assess the antibiotic’s effect in additional solid cancer models.

Repurposed therapeutic for use in therapy of colorectal cancer of different stages, most likely in combination with state-of-the-art therapies. Potentially therapeutic for use in other types of cancers.

Very encouraging initial animal data for colorectal cancer treatment (efficacy, toxicity); more extensive animal study (efficacy, dosage) for colorectal cancer treatment, and research regarding the effectiveness against different solid cancers are ongoing.