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Designer drug may treat blood cancers

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THE designer drug Ecstasy has been developed into a potent medical treatment that could be the key to tackling blood cancers. It may help save thousands of lives each year.

Scientists at the University of Birmingham have discovered that a reworked form of the drug MDMA – commonly known as Ecstasy – has potential as a cancer-killing agent for treating leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma.

Research published online in the journal Investigational New Drugs reveals significant success in “redesigning the designer drug” which they now hope can be produced in a safe form to treat patients.

Six years ago scientists at the university found that half of the cancers affecting white blood cells responded in the test tube to the growth-suppressing properties of “psychotropic” drugs.

Cancer cells

Cancer cells

These included weight loss pills, Prozac-type anti-depressants, and amphetamine derivatives such as MDMA.

Professor John Gordon, of the university’s School of Immunology and Infection, said: “This is an exciting next step towards using a modified form of MDMA to help people suffering from blood cancer. While we would not wish to give people false hope, the results of this research hold the potential for improvements in treatments in years to come.”

Dr David Grant, scientific director of the charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research, which part-funded the study, said: “The prospect of being able to target blood cancer with a drug derived from Ecstasy is a genuinely exciting proposition.

“Many types of lymphoma remain hard to treat and non-toxic drugs which are both effective and have few side-effects are desperately needed.


“Further work is required but this research is a significant step forward in developing a potential new cancer drug.”

According to the latest statistics almost 12,000 people are diagnosed with blood cancers. They kill nearly 26,000 each year.

Chemotherapy is currently the main course of treatment for blood cancers. But in many cases it will fail because the cancer cells have developed defences against the drugs.

One of the major problems in creating new treatments for blood cancers is that high levels of a key protein called BCL2 protect the cancer cells from being killed.

The new Ecstasy-based treatment can bypass this defence mechanism.

Calls for heart screening for babies

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A quick and cheap test could save the lives of babies born with congenital heart defects, doctors say.

A study of 20,055 newborns, published in The Lancet, showed testing oxygen in the blood was more successful than other checks available.

The researchers have called for the oxygen test to be used in hospitals across the UK.

The British Heart Foundation said the test could “make a real difference” as cases go unnoticed.

Congenital heart defects – such as holes between chambers in the heart and valve defects – affect around one in every 145 babies.

They are detected by ultrasound during pregnancy or by listening to the heart after birth, however, the success rate is low.

Doctors at six maternity hospitals in the UK used pulse oximeters – a piece of technology which has been around for 20 years – to detect levels of oxygen in the blood.

If the levels were too low, or varied between the hands and feet, more detailed examinations took place.

Heart health

Heart health

The test takes less than five minutes and it found 75% of the most serious abnormalities. In combination with traditional methods, 92% of cases were detected.

While some defects are inoperable, advances in surgery mean most can be corrected.

Dr Andrew Ewer, the lead researcher at the University of Birmingham, called for the test to be adopted by hospitals across the UK.

“It adds value to existing screening procedures and is likely to be useful for identification of cases of critical congenital heart defects,” he said.

Dr David Elliman, from the UK National Screening Committee, said the screening programme for infants was being reviewed and “this research will form an integral part of that review”.


Amy Thompson, senior cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: “Early and rapid detection is key for greater survival.

“Not all babies who are born with a heart defect will show any signs or symptoms, so problems can go unnoticed. This is a promising piece of research which shows how a quick and simple test could help to detect more heart defects and make a real difference.”

In the US, some states have already introduced the oximeter test.

Dr William Mahle, from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, and Dr Robert Koppel, from Cohen Children’s Medical Center in New York, argued that: “The decision to introduce another screening assay for newborn babies is one that should be made after careful consideration.

“Health-care systems in the developed world are already heavily burdened. Yet the compelling data provided [here] support inclusion of pulse oximetry into the care of the newborn baby.”