Methotrexate has proven effective against blood cancer

Scientists around the world regularly try to findeffective treatments for incurable diseases. They include such a terrible disease as cancer. For our part, we try to cover such topics and if you are interested in them, we recommend subscribing to our news channel in Telegram. Along with skin cancer, blood cancer is considered one of the most dangerous types of tumor formations. However, sometimes it happens that a medicine that is effective against one pathology is also effective against another. For example, not so long ago, a group of scientists from the UK reported that a well-known drug for arthritis can help in the treatment of blood cancer.

Sometimes an inexpensive drug can be effective against cancer.

How to beat blood cancer

If we talk about blood cancer, then quitecommon types of the disease, along with leukemia are true polycythemia and essential thrombocythemia. If you try to explain in simple words, then these diseases are associated with an excessive increase in the number of red blood cells or platelets (cell types) of human blood. The norm of these cells should be a certain number, but when, for one reason or another, a failure occurs, their uncontrolled reproduction is observed, which leads to the development of blood cancer.

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Modern methods of treating such conditionsusually aimed at reducing blood cell count, that is, roughly speaking, the "destruction" of a certain number of cells in order to bring the indicators back to normal. However, these methods only relieve symptoms without affecting the root of the problem. In search of a medicine, a group of scientists from the University of Sheffield decided to investigate the drug methotrexate. This medication is used in the treatment of arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. The main principle of its action is that methotrexate blocks the susceptibility of cells to folic acid, thereby reducing their ability to multiply. Earlier data were published that methotrexate is effective against leukemia (another type of blood cancer), but its effect on polycythemia and thrombocythemia has not been studied.

Data on the effect of the drug on the number of cells

Laboratory studies of scientists fromThe UK has shown that low doses of methotrexate acted as a “suppressor” of blood cancer cell division processes. However, this is only the first stage of the study, since the control group recruited for the experiments was insignificant. Now experts want to conduct a larger-scale survey involving far more patients. And if the data are confirmed, then the arsenal of doctors will have another effective, and most importantly cheap, means of treating a dangerous disease.

After all, the production of methotrexate today isa well-established process, which is why its price is not so high when compared with other antitumor drugs. Doctors believe that methotrexate can become not only an adjunctive therapy tool, but also a full-fledged drug for stopping both the symptoms of polycythemia and thrombocythemia, and also the means of choice in the treatment of cancer processes associated with blood damage.