anticancer properties of antidepressants

[Rich66]

DOI: 10.3332/eCMS.2008.LTR149
Received: 24 September 2008
Published: 24 September 2008

The remarkable anticancer properties of antidepressants

Julian Lieb
Physician
Independent
In 1981, one year before the emergence of AIDS, I published the first of eight reviews on the immunostimulating and antimicrobial properties of lithium and antidepressants (1-8). Publication of many of these reviews was delayed by the intransigence of journal editors and reviewers, the editor of a premier medical journal rejecting one review for being, “too long.” He and many of his peers acted as if effective treatments and preventives for AIDS were readily available, at a time when any idea was better than no idea. Fifteen years ago Jonas Salk conceded that a vaccine for AIDS was technically impossible, such that research should focus on trying to develop immunostimulants.

In August 2008 Anthony Fauci, the director of the Infection and Allergy division of the National Institutes of Health, announced at the International AIDS conference in Mexico City, that attempts at developing an AIDS vaccine had failed, such that research should focus on trying to develop immunostimulants, without referring to Salk, nor to the articles I had mailed to NIH. It would seem that at NIH, literature searches are passé. Salk refused to patent the polio vaccine, but wished to see it become available to human beings everywhere.

His generosity of spirit surely played a role in his remarkable success as a virologist, in contradistinction to the self-interests of venture capitalists, drug companies, and the Harvard Business School. Immunostimulation is probably relevant to all pathogens, and to cancer prevention and treatment. Its potential value to mankind in both humanitarian and economic terms would have to run in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Inexpensive, generic agents defy commercial exploitation, a fortune to be saved, but not made.

In 2001 I published the first of four review articles on the potent anticancer properties of antidepressants (9-12). All were delayed by the suppressive tactics of editors and reviewers of many cancer and general medical journals. The National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society declined interest, as did scores of cancer foundations, societies, and organizations.

A patient once told me that the worst thing that could possibly have befallen the March of Dimes was the polio vaccine. Another confided that if an effective remedy for cancer was discovered, the American Medical Association would suppress it. I found these remarks distasteful, and then witnessed the suppression of effective, safe, and inexpensive solutions to infectious disorders and cancer.

Over the past thirty years I have written to thousands of people and institutions about infection and cancer, that number including more than forty medical schools in the U.S, U.K, Canada and South Africa. Not one, including the most prestigious, was accommodating.

In “Against Method” Paul Feyerabend noted that suppressing a theory in preference to one politically favored could permanently damage society (13). Accordingly, the anti-prostaglandin, immunostimulating and antimicrobial properties of lithium and antidepressants, and the anticancer properties of antidepressants, have been suppressed in preference to genetics, biotechnology and stem cells. Thomas Huxley noted that, ”One small fact can ruin the grandest hypothesis.”

In 1979 David Horrobin and his coworkers showed that prostaglandins regulate nucleic acids (14), and researchers have subsequently shown that prostaglandins regulate the synthesis, inhibition and expression of genes (15). Cancer is accelerated division of abnormal cells: In 1990 Goodlad and coworkers showed that prostaglandins regulate cell division (16). Many advances have little immediate impact, one of the reasons advanced that only a few people had the specialized knowledge to recognize their significance. Medicine has become so narrowly specialized that physicians tend to concentrate their reading on their own specialties. The neglect of prostaglandins is reflected in the August 2007 Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) that did not contain a single question on the omnipresent signalers.

A therapeutic advance is reinforced when the pharmacological mechanisms are known. In this instance, excessive synthesis of prostaglandins in the brain depresses mood and immune function, and activates the mechanisms of carcinogenesis, while antidepressants have unique prostaglandin-inhibiting properties (11,12). Scores of thousands of publications attest to the role of prostaglandins in carcinogenesis. Conventional prostaglandin inhibiting drugs such as sulindac, piroxicam, ibuprofen and indomethacin have proven anticancer actions in vitro and in vivo (17). Whether to use a prostaglandin- inhibitor or an antidepressant in an individual case is a subject for future research, but I would tend to favor trying antidepressants first, not the least for their impressive immunostimulating and antimicrobial properties.

More than forty in vitro studies have shown that antidepressants are cytotoxic and cytostatic, reverse multidrug sensitivity, and protect nonmalignant cells from ionizing radiation and chemotherapy toxicity (11,12). And, as low molecular weight mitocans, antidepressants target the mitochondria of cancer cells, while sparing health cells. Depression predisposes to cancer (18), and accelerates the death of patients with cancer, (19) while antidepressants extend the lives of lung, and probably other cancer patients, and enhance chemotherapy (20). Antidepressants can lose their effectiveness (21), in which case others can be substituted. The emergence of paradoxical reactions (22), such as intensification of depression, pain or any other cancer related symptom would militate for discontinuing an antidepressant and substituting another, perhaps chemically unrelated agent.

Despite the volume of evidence, there are bound to be editors and reviewers who will resort to the subterfuge of, ”Interesting, but needs more evidence.” Clinicians ought not to wait for some third party to give its stamp of approval for using antidepressants in the prevention, treatment and palliation of cancer, or to at least inform their patients of the neglected resource. Many antidepressants may have to be tried before achieving success. In some instances antidepressants may be combined with chemotherapy or radiation, in others they alone will suffice. Antidepressants have the remarkable ability to arrest cancer, and then reverse it. Clinicians should consider submitting case reports, both positive and negative, to build a body of evidence about malignancies that respond or seem to be impervious to antidepressants.

In combating cancer and infection, clinicians will need a wider selection of antidepressants than currently available. Agencies such as the Food and Drug Administration must begin to view antidepressants as immunostimulants and anti-carcinogens, and develop more permissive policies to approve agents with antidepressant properties. The development of biological markers to match antidepressants and subjects would apply to every context in which antidepressants are used. In all likelihood, such markers will involve prostaglandins.

Vested interests have colluded in the suppression of the remarkable immunostimulating and anticancer properties of antidepressants (23,24,25,26). In the world of commerce this might be regarded as monopolistic, and subject to antitrust laws. Applying those laws to medical research, education and publishing would seem to be overdue.





References:

1. Lieb J. Immunopotentiation and inhibition of herpes virus activation during therapy with lithium carbonate. Med Hypoth 1981 7:885-890
2. Lieb J. Remission of herpes virus infection and immunopotentiation with lithium carbonate: Inhibition of prostaglandin E1 synthesis by lithium may explain its antiviral, immunopotentiating, and antimanic properties. Proceedings of the Third World Congress of Biological Psychiatry, Stockholm. Biol Psych Perris C, Struwe G, Jansson B. (eds.) 1981 695-698
3. Lieb J. Remission of rheumatoid arthritis and other disorders of immunity in patients taking monoamine oxidase inhibitors. Int J Immunopharm 1983 5(4): 353-357
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12. Lieb, J.Defeating cancer with antidepressants. ecancermedicalscience DOI 10.3332/ eCMS.2008.88
13. Feyerabend, P “Against Method.” 1988. London, Verso.
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20. Jovanovic D, Nagorni-Obradovic LJ, Blanka, A, Popevic S, Grujic M. Mianserin therapy in advanced lung cancer patients. 8th Central European Lung Cancer Conference, Vienna, 2002. Internat. Proc. Division, Monduzzi Editore 2002 339-343.
21. Lieb, J and Balter A . Antidepressant tachyphylaxis. Med Hypoth 1984 15: 279
22. Lieb, J. Variation: Darwin’s finches, sea barnacles, and the side effects of antidepressants. (Editorial). Med Hypoth (2008) 70, 221-223
23. Horrobin DF.Something Rotten at the Core of Science? Trends in Pharmacological Sciences. (2001) Vol. 22, No 2, 1-4
24. Horrobin, DF. Effective Clinical Innovation: an ethical imperative. Lancet (2002) 359: 1857-58
25. Horrobin DF. Are large clinical trials in rapidly lethal diseases usually unethical? Lancet (2003) 361: 695-97
26. Horrobin, DF. Not in the genes: enthusiasts for genomics have corrupted scientific endeavor and undermined hopes of medical progress. The Guardian (Feb 12, 2003) 1-3

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