RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Repurposing drugs for solid tumor treatment: focus on immune checkpoint inhibitors
JF Cancer Biology & Medicine
JO Cancer Biology & Medicine
FD China Anti-Cancer Association
SP 856
OP 868
DO 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2023.0281
VO 20
IS 11
A1 Qingxu Liu
A1 Long Li
A1 Wan Qin
A1 Tengfei Chao
YR 2023
UL http://www.cancerbiomed.org/content/20/11/856.abstract
AB Cancer remains a significant global health challenge with limited treatment options beyond systemic therapies, such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and molecular targeted therapy. Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising therapeutic modality but the efficacy has plateaued, which therefore provides limited benefits to patients with cancer. Identification of more effective approaches to improve patient outcomes and extend survival are urgently needed. Drug repurposing has emerged as an attractive strategy for drug development and has recently garnered considerable interest. This review comprehensively analyses the efficacy of various repurposed drugs, such as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) inhibitors, metformin, receptor activator of nuclear factor-κB ligand (RANKL) inhibitors, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), thymosin α1 (Tα1), aspirin, and bisphosphonate, in tumorigenesis with a specific focus on their impact on tumor immunology and immunotherapy. Additionally, we present a concise overview of the current preclinical and clinical studies investigating the potential therapeutic synergies achieved by combining these agents with immune checkpoint inhibitors.