Birmingham boffins give new hope for cancer sufferers

Jan 21 2010 by John Marsden, Birmingham Mail

SCIENTISTS in Birmingham may have discovered a safer cancer treatment by combining contraceptive and fat-busting drugs.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham treated 20 leukaemia patients too frail to undergo debilitating chemotherapy with the cholesterol-lowering drug Bezafibrate (BEZ) and the female contraceptive drug Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (MPA).

The study showed patients treated with the drugs had none of the side effects of chemotherapy and that survival was improved. The patients on the trial were treated at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and hospitals across the West Midlands and Glasgow.