Mental Health Blogs

A new study from Australian researchers in the International Journal of Cancer asserts that some antipsychotics can kill lung, breast and brain cancer cells. This was established in in-vitro lab experiments. The big winner among the cancer-killing antipsychotics is reported to be pimozide, otherwise known as Orap, an old first-generation antipsychotic that is among gnarliest in its side effects and is rarely used in treating schizophrenia (I have a friend whose mother has schizophrenia who was rendered catatonic on Orap). In second place was our old pal Zyprexa.

From sciencedaily.com:

“In the new study, pimozide was the most lethal of six anti-psychotic drugs tested by a team from UNSW and the University of Queensland. Rapidly-dividing cancer cells require cholesterol and lipids to grow and the researchers suspect that pimozide kills cancer cells by blocking the synthesis or movement of cholesterol and lipid in cancer cells.

“Analysis of gene expression in test cancer cells showed that genes involved in the synthesis and uptake of cholesterol and lipids were boosted when pimozide was introduced.

“To test the idea that pimozide acts by disrupting cholesterol homeostasis, the researchers combined pimozide with mevastatin, a drug that inhibits cholesterol production in cells. The two drugs were more lethal in combination against cancer cells than when either drug was used alone.”

That’s a fascinating finding, one that obviously needs to be replicated in vitro and in animal studies before finding any applicability to humans. But given how aggressive lung, breast and brain cancer cells can be–and how difficult they are to stop with current therapies–expect to see more studies of this potential use of antipsychotics in the fairly near future.

BTW, apparently what spurred this line of research was the observation that people diagnosed with schizophrenia who take antipsychotics had lower incidences of cancer, despite the fact that many people with schizophrenia smoke like chimneys, and researchers wondered if there wasn’t some kind of cancer-protecting effect attached to antipsychotic use.

Obviously, these drugs are awful for people with schizophrenia over time and lead to a host of well-known problems such as diabetes and, well, you name it, but that’s probably not relevant to whatever use antipsychotics might have in treating cancers, since patients would probably not take the drugs long term.

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