ReviewCancers2023
Drug Repurposing in Oncology: A Systematic Review of Randomized Controlled Clinical Trials.
Review in Cancers, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 22 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Drug Repurposing Screen Identifies Pimozide as a ROS-Inducing Therapy With Anti-Tumor Efficacy in HNSCC PDX Models.Cancer science · 2026Article
- Recent advances in drug repurposing for cancer immunomodulation emerging strategies, mechanistic insights, and clinical translation.Frontiers in oncology · 2026Review
- Metabolic reprogramming in sepsis-associated encephalopathy: emerging mechanisms, candidate biomarkers, and future therapeutic directions.Frontiers in medicine · 2026Review
- The evolving landscape of cancer cachexia prevention: A review of metronomic chemotherapy and drug repurposing strategies.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Article
- Drug Repurposing in Veterinary Oncology: Myth or Reality?Veterinary sciences · 2025Review
- Article
- Advances in Diclofenac Derivatives: Exploring Carborane-Substituted N-Methyl and Nitrile Analogs for Anticancer Therapy.ChemMedChem · 2025Article
- Metformin and glioma: Targeting metabolic dysregulation for enhanced therapeutic outcomes.Translational oncology · 2025Review
- Influence of Mesalazine on Ferroptosis-Related Gene Expression in In Vitro Colorectal Cancer Culture.Biomedicines · 2025Article
- Re-design and evaluation of diclofenac-based carborane-substituted prodrugs and their anti-cancer potential.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Drug Repurposing for Cancer Treatment: A Comprehensive Review.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Repurposing metabolic regulators: antidiabetic drugs as anticancer agents.Molecular biomedicine · 2024Review
- COX 2-inhibitors; a thorough and updated survey into combinational therapies in cancers.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2024Review
- Repurposable Drugs for Immunotherapy and Strategies to Find Candidate Drugs.Pharmaceutics · 2023Review
- The dark side of drug repurposing. From clinical trial challenges to antimicrobial resistance: analysis based on three major fields.Drug target insightsReview
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Quality pharmacological treatment can improve survival in many types of cancer. Drug repurposing offers advantages in comparison with traditional drug development procedures, reducing time and risk. This systematic review identified the most recent randomized controlled clinical trials that focus on drug repurposing in oncology. We found that only a few clinical trials were placebo-controlled or standard-of-care-alone-controlled. Metformin has been studied for potential use in various types of cancer, including prostate, lung, and pancreatic cancer. Other studies assessed the possible use of the antiparasitic agent mebendazole in colorectal cancer and of propranolol in multiple myeloma or, when combined with etodolac, in breast cancer. We were able to identify trials that study the potential use of known antineoplastics in other non-oncological conditions, such as imatinib for severe coronavirus disease in 2019 or a study protocol aiming to assess the possible repurposing of leuprolide for Alzheimer's disease. Major limitations of these clinical trials were the small sample size, the high clinical heterogeneity of the participants regarding the stage of the neoplastic disease, and the lack of accounting for multimorbidity and other baseline clinical characteristics. Drug repurposing possibilities in oncology must be carefully examined with well-designed trials, considering factors that could influence prognosis.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.