The study found that dozens of drugs—used to treat diabetes, osteoarthritis in dogs, or alcohol dependence—inhibited cancer cells in lab experiments.
Researchers examined the activity of more than 45-hundred drugs across nearly 600 human cancer cell lines.
They found 49 non-cancer drugs that selectively killed cancer cells and another 103 compounds that work against cancer cells but were less selective.
Since these findings were conducted in a lab and were on the cellular level, more research is needed to determine whether the drugs could actually treat cancer in humans.
The study was published Monday in the journal “Nature Cancer.”
