Heart drugs may help treat colon cancer

UPPSALA, Sweden, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- A group of drugs used to treat heart failure shows promise for fighting colon cancer, researchers in Sweden said.

Jenny Felth and Joachim Gullbo both of of Uppsala University and colleagues said cardiac glycosides -- a family of naturally derived drugs used to treat congestive heart failure and abnormal heart rhythms -- may prove useful in fighting many types of cancer.

As part of a larger study to screen and identify natural substances with activity against colon cancer, the researchers tested five of these heart drugs against laboratory cultures of human colon cancer cells and found they were all effective, to varying degrees, in killing the cancer cells.

The sensitivity was rather low when compared with that of other cancer cell types reported previously. However, several of the drugs also showed increased anti-cancer activity when combined with certain drugs used for standard chemotherapy.

The findings, published in the Journal of Natural Products, suggest the heart drugs may affect colon cancer outcome when used alone or in combination with conventional chemotherapy drugs.