A product of GlaxoSmithKline, the widely-used diabetes drug Avandia® (rosiglitazone maleate) works by enhancing a diabetic patient's sensitivity to insulin. This drug has been approved in 1999 by the FDA for use by type 2 diabetes patients to help them control their blood sugar levels.

Now, in a research conducted by scientists of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute on cancer cell lines and mice with tumor, rosiglitazone has been found to boost the potency of platinum-based chemotherapy agents when administered together.

As reported in an article in the May issue of Cancer Cell:

Combining a platinum chemotherapy agent and the diabetes drug rosiglitazone halted or shrank mouse tumors as much as three times more effectively than either of the drugs given alone.

Cancers often treated with platinum-based chemotherapy agents (ovarian cancer, lung cancer, etc.) usually lead to resistance of the patients. If this synergistic effect of risoglitazone- platinum chemotherapy combination is demonstrated in humans, then there will sure be improvement in the control of these cancers.

The Dana-Farber scientists are now working on plans to bring their research to clinical trials which they hope to initiate sometime this year.

Find more details from the full report.