HIV drug maraviroc may slow prostate cancer

A drug used to treat HIV infection can slow the spread of prostate cancer, research has shown.

Early studies have shown the antiretroviral drug maraviroc can dramatically curb the spread of prostate cancer, that claims around 10,000 lives in the UK each year. Prostate cancer tumours most commonly travels to the bones, but treatment with maraviroc reduced the spread to the bones, brain and other organs by 60 per cent in mice.

Dr Richard Pestell, from Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, said: “Because this work shows we can dramatically reduce metastasis in pre-clinical models, and because the drug is already... approved for HIV treatment, we may be able to test soon whether this drug can block metastasis in patients with prostate cancer.”

PA