A drug for diarrhea can kill aggressive cancer cells

Image: A Petri dish in a laboratory. Image source: pogonici/Adobe. Article by Mike Wehner.

• New research suggests that a drug used to slow down an upset digestive tract may actually be useful in the treatment of cancer.
• The medication, called loperamide, is often used to treat diarrhea, but it can also induce the destruction of certain tumor cells. 
• Additional research is needed, but the findings could lead to novel treatments for certain aggressive types of cancer.

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In the fight against cancer, doctors and scientists have tried many, many unconventional things. Sometimes existing drugs that weren’t originally intended to treat certain ailments prove beneficial later on, and it’s not until extensive research on a drug’s effects is done that scientists truly know what any given medication is capable of. […]

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