Most people who die from cancer do so because the cancer spreads to other parts of the body. This process is called metastasis. Tiny groups of cancer cells can break away from the main tumor and travel through the body.
These cells are often too small to see or remove during surgery. That’s why doctors usually give chemotherapy after surgery—to kill any leftover cancer cells.
But there’s a problem. Chemotherapy can cause inflammation in the body. And sometimes, this inflammation may actually help cancer spread instead of stopping it.
Now, scientists at Emory University have found a possible new way to stop this from happening. They studied a drug called ketorolac, which is an anti-inflammatory medicine. It is usually used to treat pain for a short time. The researchers discovered that giving ketorolac before surgery might help stop cancer from spreading.
Their study showed that ketorolac helps activate the immune system. This means it helps the body’s natural defenses attack and destroy the small cancer cells that might be left after surgery. This could explain why earlier studies found that breast cancer patients who got ketorolac during surgery had less cancer spread.
Ketorolac is already approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but it’s not used often because of worries about side effects. Still, in this new study, ketorolac helped mice survive longer by reducing cancer spread.
Even more exciting, the researchers found that combining ketorolac with other simple treatments—like low-dose aspirin and omega-3 fatty acids—made the results even better. The combination led to more mice surviving and fewer cancer cells spreading.
The team hopes this research will lead to new ways of treating cancer in humans. They are now studying how ketorolac might be used with other cancer treatments to help more people recover and stay cancer-free.
The study was led by Dr. Vikas P. Sukhatme and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. It shows how drugs that already exist might be used in new ways to fight cancer. While more studies are needed, this could be a big step forward in stopping cancer from spreading.
If you care about cancer, please read studies about a new method to treat cancer effectively, and this low-dose, four-drug combo may block cancer spread.
For more health information, please see recent studies about nutrient in fish that can be a poison for cancer, and results showing this daily vitamin is critical to cancer prevention.
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