It is one of the most feared cancers: a fast-growing brain tumor that kills half of its victims within a year.
Now, experts say they may have discovered an unlikely but affordable treatment for the brain cancer glioblastoma: a little-known antidepressant called vortioxetine.
Swiss scientists, who analyzed the effects of 130 different drugs on brain cancer tissue, found that vortioxetine was the most effective at destroying diseased cells.
Further research in mice with glioblastoma also suggested that the drug slowed tumor growth and shrank them, an effect that was greatly enhanced when combined with chemotherapy.
The Wanted singer Tom Parker (pictured with wife Kelsey Parker in October 2021) died in March 2022 after an 18-month battle with stage four glioblastoma. He said after his diagnosis that he was “shocked” by the limited treatment options for GBM and that “massive improvements” were needed.
Vortioxetine, which costs around £40 for a pack of 28 tablets, was shown to be the most effective of all the antidepressants.
Experts believe the pill is effective because, unlike others, it is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, meaning it bypasses the membrane that prevents substances from entering the brain.
Professor Michael Weller, co-author of the study and a neuroscience expert at Zurich University Hospital, said: ‘The advantage of vortioxetine is that it is safe and very cost-effective.
“As the drug has already been approved, it does not need to go through a complex approval procedure and could soon complement standard therapy for this deadly brain tumor.”
However, he urged patients not to take vortioxetine on their own without medical supervision.
“We still don’t know if the drug works in humans and what dose is required to combat the tumor, which is why clinical trials are necessary,” he added.
In the study, researchers combined brain cancer tissue from 40 patients with 130 drugs, which also included Parkinson’s drugs.
They then used a combination of scans and computer analysis to assess how effective the drugs were in destroying cancer cells and preventing the rapid division that triggers tumor development and growth.
They found that vortioxetine rapidly triggered chemical reactions that crossed the blood-brain barrier.
The drug, which costs around £40 for a pack of 28 tablets, was found to be the most effective of all antidepressants.
The cancer, which is diagnosed in about 3,000 Britons and 12,000 Americans a year, is still treated in much the same way as it was in the early 2000s. In 2018, it killed Labour politician Dame Tessa Jowell.
Two more trials in patients are now planned to see if it improves the power of chemotherapy and radiation therapy to shrink tumors.
Experts say that if effective, vortioxetine will be the first drug in decades to improve the treatment of glioblastoma.
Commenting on the findings, Dr Simon Newman, scientific director of The Brain Tumour Charity, who was not involved in the study, said: “Any scientific development that brings us closer to new treatments for glioblastoma is promising, as treatments have not changed for decades.
We urgently need gentler and more effective therapies for people facing a glioblastoma diagnosis, so using new technologies and repurposing existing drugs can help achieve this.
‘Finding drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier is a particular challenge, so using drugs we already know can do so is an exciting prospect.
‘Translating these early findings to patients who need them most is the next step, and we look forward to conducting future studies with vortioxetine.’
Standard treatments for this “aggressive” cancer (which affects around 3,000 Britons and 12,000 Americans each year) involve surgery before patients receive chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This is the same way it was treated in the early 2000s.
Diagnosed patients usually undergo surgery to remove as much of the tumor as possible.
This is followed by daily radiation therapy and chemotherapy drugs for about six weeks, after which the dose of the drugs is reduced.
Radiation can then be used to destroy more tumour cells and treat those that are not well enough to be operated on, but cancer can double in size in as little as seven weeks.
According to the Brain Tumour Charity, the average survival time for glioblastoma is between 12 and 18 months. Only five per cent of patients survive five years, it says.
The disease killed Labour politician Dame Tessa Jowell in 2018, just a year after she was diagnosed with the illness.
In March 2022, The Wanted singer Tom Parker also died 18 months after doctors detected his stage four glioblastoma.
Vortioxetine, also known as Brintellix, is an antidepressant used to treat major depression that has not responded to other, more common treatments.
It works in a similar way to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), but also uses other mechanisms to increase circulating serotonin, the brain hormone responsible for mood.
