April 24, 2019
Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy
A research group led by Associate Professor Yoshimasa Saito of the Division of Pharmacotherapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Keio University, has discovered the potential for amorolfine and fenticonazole, drugs used to treat tinea pedis (athlete's foot), to become new therapeutic agents for biliary tract cancer. The discovery was made by performing drug screening on cancer cells provided by patients with biliary tract cancer, a typical intractable cancer, after culturing them in vitro for an extended period.
Amorolfine and fenticonazole are used as therapeutic agents for fungal infections such as tinea pedis (athlete's foot), and their safety has already been confirmed as they are commercially available compounds. They are expected to become candidates for new preventive and therapeutic drugs that can efficiently suppress biliary tract cancer with minimal side effects.
These research findings were published in the online edition of the international academic journal "Cell Reports" on April 23, 2019 (US Eastern Time).
Please see below for the full press release.