Cancer is very dangerous when it spreads to other parts of the body. This spreading process is called metastasis, and it causes most cancer deaths—not the original tumor.
When cancer cells break away from the main tumor, they travel through the blood or lymph system and can start growing in new parts of the body. These new cancer cells are often very small and hard to find or remove during surgery. That makes them difficult to treat.
To fight this, many people get chemotherapy after their cancer surgery. The goal is to kill any cancer cells that might still be hiding in the body.
But chemotherapy can cause inflammation, which is a kind of swelling or irritation inside the body. And this inflammation can actually make it easier for cancer to spread. This creates a problem—treatments meant to help might also make things worse.
Now, researchers at Emory University have discovered something interesting. They found that an old pain medicine called ketorolac might help stop cancer from spreading.
Ketorolac is a type of drug known as an NSAID (nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug), like ibuprofen. It is approved by the FDA and often used to relieve pain for a short time. Doctors usually avoid giving it for a long time because of its side effects.
But this drug might have a new use. In a study led by Dr. Vikas P. Sukhatme, researchers gave ketorolac to mice before cancer surgery. The results were impressive.
The drug helped the immune system fight and kill cancer cells that had started to move to other parts of the body. Mice that got the drug had fewer cancer cells in other organs and lived longer than mice that didn’t get it.
This might explain something doctors saw years ago. Breast cancer patients who were given ketorolac during surgery had a lower chance of their cancer coming back or spreading. Back then, no one knew why. But this new study may give the answer.
The researchers didn’t stop there. They also gave the mice a mix of ketorolac, low-dose aspirin, and omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 is a healthy fat found in fish oil. These three together worked even better than ketorolac alone. The mice had stronger immune systems, fewer tumors, and lived longer.
Using everyday drugs to stop cancer might sound surprising, but it makes sense. Inflammation makes it easier for cancer to grow. By reducing inflammation with common drugs like ketorolac and aspirin, the immune system has a better chance of fighting cancer before it spreads.
The researchers believe ketorolac might one day be added to regular cancer treatment. But it’s too early to make changes now. More research is needed to see how it works in people, which types of cancer it helps, and what the safest doses are. Still, these early results are full of hope.
If future studies show the same results in humans, this low-cost and widely available medicine could help many people. It’s a simple idea—use an old drug in a new way—and it might save lives.
This research was published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. It reminds us that sometimes, powerful solutions come from medicines we already have. Scientists are now working hard to turn these findings into real treatments.
If you care about cancer, please read studies that a low-carb diet could increase overall cancer risk, and vitamin D supplements could strongly reduce cancer death.
For more information about health, please see recent studies about how drinking milk affects the risks of heart disease and cancer and results showing higher intake of dairy foods linked to higher prostate cancer risk.
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