A comprehensive review on drug repurposing in cancer treatment

Abstract

Cancer, a complex and highly detrimental group of medical conditions, continues to become a significant global health burden. Despite oncology research's advances, cancer drug development has fallen behind due to a number of factors such as rising failure rates, high costs, low bioavailability, many adverse effects, and a lengthy design and evaluation process. This indicates a large unmet need for better cancer treatments, which has encouraged drug repurposing. Drug repurposing refers to discovering a novel therapeutic application for an approved drug. Drugs belong to different therapeutic classes have shown anticancer potential in several studies. These may destroy cancer cells or influence their behavior in existing tumors. This study reviews various non-cancer drug categories that have shown promise in preclinical and clinical trials for repurposing them in cancer treatment, along with their mechanisms of action and the suitability for certain malignancies.