Asthma drug shows promise against pancreas cancer

WASHINGTON (Reuters Life!) - A common asthma drug slowed pancreatic cancer tumor growth in mice and made standard chemotherapy more effective, scientists said on Tuesday, indicating a possible new way to fight the deadly disease.

Researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston examined the effects of cromolyn, an asthma and allergy medication that has been used for more than 40 years, against cancer of the pancreas.

Writing in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, they said combining cromolyn with chemotherapy was nearly three times better at retarding growth of pancreatic tumors in mice compared to the use of chemotherapy agent gemcitabine alone.

Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly cancers, killing more than 95 percent of people diagnosed with it. Half die within six months of being diagnosed. The pancreas is a gland situated behind the stomach.

"Our goal is to offer longer life to these patients, and the combination of these two agents may well do that," Craig Logsdon, the study's lead author, said in a statement.

Cromolyn is off patent and widely available.