UF Health Researchers Identify Nine Noncancer Drugs with the Potential to Improve Cancer Survival

UF Health researchers sifting through millions of electronic health records found evidence that nine drugs already being used to treat other health conditions may also have the potential to improve cancer survival.

The researchers hope that with additional study, some of these drugs — currently used to treat noncancerous health conditions such as high cholesterol, acid reflux, hypertension and diabetes — could be repurposed as effective cancer treatments.

Cancer drug development is increasingly expensive and time consuming, according to Yonghui Wu, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the UF College of Medicine’s department of health outcomes and biomedical informatics and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center. Developing a new cancer-treating drug can cost anywhere from $648 million to $2.5 billion and take nine to 12 years before it is available on the market. Fewer than 8 percent of cancer drugs in development successfully make it to market, he said.

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