Ovarian cancer is the deadliest form of gynecologic cancer worldwide, with more than 300,000 new cases and 200,000 deaths each year. One of the most aggressive types is called high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC).
This cancer is difficult to detect early, often resists treatment, and has a high chance of coming back after initial therapy. Currently, there are no long-term treatments that can keep it in remission.
However, researchers at the Penn Ovarian Cancer Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania are studying a surprising potential treatment—colforsin daropate, a drug originally developed for heart failure.
The study, published in Science Signaling, suggests that this drug could help fight ovarian cancer by targeting a key cancer-causing protein.
A Drug with a New Purpose
Colforsin daropate is not a new drug. It has been used since the 1990s to treat acute heart failure. But scientists are now exploring whether it can be repurposed for ovarian cancer treatment.
Repurposing existing drugs can be a faster and more cost-effective way to find new treatments because these drugs have already been tested for safety in humans.
The researchers focused on colforsin daropate because of its effect on a protein called MYC, which plays a major role in the growth of HGSOC tumors. In many ovarian cancer cases, MYC is overactive, helping cancer cells grow and survive. The study suggests that colforsin daropate suppresses MYC, potentially slowing or stopping tumor growth.
How the Drug Works
To test colforsin daropate’s potential, researchers studied its effects in the lab on ovarian cancer cells and in animal models. When combined with the standard chemotherapy drug cisplatin, colforsin daropate was able to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. One of its most promising effects is that it targets cancer cells while leaving healthy cells unharmed.
Ovarian cancer is particularly challenging because its cells tend to form small, round clusters called spheroids. These spheroids spread within the abdomen, making the disease harder to treat.
Many cancer treatments struggle to reach these tumor clusters, but colforsin daropate appears to break down the spheroids, preventing them from sticking together and spreading further.
In tests on mice with ovarian cancer, the drug slowed tumor growth and helped the animals survive longer. The results suggest that colforsin daropate may offer a new approach to treating HGSOC, especially for patients whose cancer has become resistant to standard chemotherapy.
The Next Steps
Although these findings are promising, colforsin daropate is still in the early stages of research. So far, it has only been tested in the lab and in animals, not in human patients. More studies are needed to understand exactly how the drug works, how effective it is, and whether it is safe for women with ovarian cancer.
Researchers are hopeful that because colforsin daropate is already an approved heart medication, the process of bringing it to clinical trials for ovarian cancer could be faster than developing a brand-new drug.
Why This Matters
High-grade serous ovarian cancer remains one of the hardest cancers to treat. Most patients are diagnosed at a late stage when the disease has already spread, and even after successful initial treatment, the cancer often returns. The search for new treatments is urgent, and the discovery that a heart drug may help fight this cancer is an exciting development.
If future studies confirm its effectiveness, colforsin daropate could become an important addition to ovarian cancer treatment. By targeting the MYC protein and breaking apart cancer spheroids, it may help slow down tumor growth and improve survival rates for patients with this aggressive disease.
For now, researchers continue to explore how this drug works and how it can be best used in combination with existing cancer treatments. While it is not yet a cure, colforsin daropate offers new hope in the fight against ovarian cancer.
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The research findings can be found in Science Signaling.
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